U.N. members agree to study livestock role in global warming

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:

 

 

U.N. members agree to study livestock role in global warming

 

COPENHAGEN--A draft agreement creating an international

working group under United Nations auspices to reduce global warming

emissions from agriculture may become a turning point in the

international struggle to reduce and mitigate climate change.

Though called " greenhouse gases, " because they trap heat,

the emissions at issue are produced chiefly by livestock, by the use

of fossil fuels in raising fodder for livestock, and by clearing

woodlands for grazing and fodder cultivation.

" Current agricultural production is estimated to contribute

30% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than double that of its

nearest rival, transport, at 13.5%, " explained Ed Hamer, reporting

for The Ecologist.

Warned the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization in

a November 2006 report entitled Live-stock's Long

Shadow--Environmental Issues and Options, " The environmental costs

per unit of livestock production must be cut by one half, just to

avoid the level of damage worsening. "

The draft agreement to address agricultural practices was

quietly adopted as the global warming summit closed on December 18,

2009, after 12 days of discussion and often frustrating impasses

among 192 national delegations. The draft agreement " was riddled

with bracketed phrases at the close of the summit, leaving its

ultimate fate unclear, " wrote John Collins Rudolf of The New York

Times. " Yet as recently as April 2009, agriculture had yet to be

included on the agenda of the Copenhagen climate talks, " Rudolf

noted, " making the emergence of the draft agreement all the more

significant. "

" Research by the group, " Rudolf said, " is to focus on

developing technologies and techniques to mitigate emissions from

crop and livestock cultivation, and adapting agricultural systems to

rising temperatures. The agreement further states that countries

should weigh the impact of their emissions-mitigation efforts on

'food security,' a byword for the access of poor people and nations

to adequate food supplies. "

" Measures to tackle deforestation and incorporate

agricultural issues seem to be the only real success story " from the

summit, assessed Jonathan Scurlock, chief climate change adviser to

Britain's National Farmers' Union, in a blog posting from Copenhagen.

The draft agreement was pushed by a de facto coalition

representing farmers, environmentalists, developing nations, and

animal advocates. " Agriculture is where poverty reduction, food

security and climate change intersect--and we all want it included in

the climate change agreement, " said Spurlock. " Much of the fine

detail can await further development by the UN's subsidiary bodies, "

Spurlock added.

" Agricultural leaders presented a united front in

Copenhagen, " agreed William Surman of Farmer's Guardian. " However,

debate raged over the best farming practice to deliver emissions

cuts. "

Warned Crop Protection Association chief executive Dominic

Dyer, " Up to half the world's productive arable land could be lost

over the next 40 years due to the combined impact of rising

temperatures, salinity and water scarcity. " Because more food will

have to be produced from less land, Dyer claimed, " the adoption of

more intensive farming practices offers the most effective route to

mitigate and cope with the effects of climate change. "

But Soil Association policy director Patrick Holden argued

that " Permanent grassland grazed by ruminants represents a stable

ecosystem which is more carbon-friendly than ploughing it up to grow

crops to feed to intensively farmed chickens, pigs and poultry. "

Holden framed his contentions as a rebuttal of vegan and

vegetarian arguments, but implicit in a turn away from factory

farming would be a steep reduction in meat consumption. Up to 70% of

all cultivated land is used to grow feed crops for livestock, at

hugely inefficient ratios of conversion of plant protein to animal

protein. Agricutural economists estimate that about five times more

humans could be fed if all grain crops were used for human

consumption, while marginal farm land not suitable for grain

cultivation was left to livestock.

" At projected levels of population growth the world will be

home to more than nine billion people by 2050, " pointed out Rudolf

of The New York Times, " requiring a 70% increase in food production,

according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. "

" Climate change is a ticking time bomb for global food

security, " U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De

Schutter acknowledged. " We know that the impacts of climate change

will be felt disproportionately by some of the poorest countries and

by the most vulnerable within those countries. Small-scale farmers

and indigenous peoples, as well as those who depend on land for

their livelihoods, will suffer most. "

The presence in Copenhagen of a large contingent of vegan and

vegetarian activists was noted by media, including at a December 12

street demonstration by as many as 60,000 people that upstaged an

" Agriculture Day " event attracting about 300.

A sign proclaiming " Earth in Need: Delete Meat, " wrote Tom

Zeller Jr. of The New York Times, " was one of many promoting

vegetarian diets. "

" An action outside the Danish Meat Council drew attention to

Denmark's dependence upon imported soya and cereals to feed its

800,000 intensively farmed pigs, " observed Ecologist correspondent

Hamer.

" Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of

greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world's

resources. A vegetarian diet is better, " former World Bank chief

economist Nicholas Stern told the London Times during the

preliminaries to the Copenhagen global warming summit. Stern in 2006

produced an influential report comparing the potential costs of

global warming with the costs of control measures.

Agreed former U.S. vice president and longtime anti-global

warming crusader Albert Gore, to ABC broadcaster Diane Sawyer, " I'm

not a vegetarian, but I have cut back sharply on the meat that I eat.

It is absolutely correct that the growing meat intensity of diets

around the world is one of the issues connected to this global

crisis--not only because of the CO2 involved, but also because of the

water consumed in the process. We've all heard from our doctors for

many years that vegetables and fruits should occupy a bigger part of

all of our diets, and that's important for a lot of reasons. I've

made those changes. I don't go quite as far as Nick saying everybody

should become a vegetarian, " Gore said, " partly because it's

difficult enough to get the agreement without adding that, but it is

a legitimate point of view. "

Despite the efforts of Stern, Gore, and the vegan and

vegetarian demonstrators in Copenhagen, and despite the potential

significance of the draft agreement to examine agricultural

contributions to global warming, the role of livestock production in

creating greenhouse gases was distinctly underplayed in mainstream

summit coverage.

Only 5% of web coverage of the Copenhagen summit,

worldwide, mentioned either livestock or meat. Only 2% of U.S.

newspaper coverage mentioned either livestock or meat. The New York

Times reported much more about the livestock contribution to global

warming than most U.S. mainstream media, but even The New York Times

mentioned livestock or meat in just 5% of Copenhagen summit reportage

--and only 5% of the 79 readers who posted response to that coverage

to New York Times web pages mentioned the livestock and meat angles.

This was consistent with coverage of Livestock's Long

Shadow when published in 2006. Only 39 U.S. daily newspapers--just

3%--published more than a syndicated summary of the United Nations

Food & Agricultural Organization findings. The New York Times, one

of the few U.S. daily newspapers that is not heavily dependent upon

supermarket meat advertising, editorially endorsed the Livestock's

Long Shadow findings, but more than a month after the report was

issued.

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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