One kilogram of meat as harmful to the climate as driving up to 1600 kilometres in a car

Wien (ots) - A recent Austrian and Dutch study shows that the
production of one kilogram of beef in Brazil produces 335 kilograms
of carbon dioxide (CO2), which corresponds roughly to the emissions
of driving an average European car for more than 1600 kilometres.
Even Dutch beef still amounts to 22 kilogram CO2 or 111 kilometres in
a car.

Kurt Schmidinger from the University of Vienna and Elke Stehfest
from the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency have
developed a fundamental enhancement of the commonly used life cycle
assessment method (LCA) for foods, which now appears online in the
International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.

The particular innovation is the integration into the calculations
of the area used for production in addition to the emissions
resulting from the production of foods. Despite playing a central
role for the climate, area use effects have been ignored in climate
balances until now. Occupation of huge areas prevents natural
vegetation from regrowing. This vegetation would absorb CO2 from the
atmosphere in much the same way a sponge would and stabilize the
world climate.

With the now published enhancement for LCAs the area demand of a
product is added as a "missed potential carbon sink" to the emissions
of the food production in the balance.

One kilogram of Dutch chicken meat has the lowest total
CO2-balance among animal products with 6.2 kilograms CO2 or 31 car
kilometres. The author, geophysicist and food scientist Kurt
Schmidinger, warns of false conclusions: "Industrial livestock
systems are simply not viable options, even if their climate balances
sometimes outcompete pasture systems. Industrial livestock systems
require enormous amounts of cropland, which is less available than
pastures, this in turn threatens global food security. Global
pandemics, antibiotic resistance, animal welfare problems, water
pollution, soil erosion and many more issues are associated with
industrial livestock farming. Plant based foods, on the other hand,
perform significantly better when considering all ethical aspects of
nutrition".

Protein rich plant based foods show by far the lowest CO2-scores
in the new study, with tofu producing 3.8 kilograms of CO2 , which is
equivalent to 19 car kilometres and tempeh producing 2.4 kilograms of
CO2 , which is equivalent to 12 car kilometres.

Link to the study:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/t7h218510496nh0m/

Contact:
Kurt Schmidinger, FEWD University Vienna, Mobile: +43/676/3322107,
kurt.schmidinger@futurefood.org and kurt.schmidinger@univie.ac.at