This is what is known in the trade as a “two fer.” We have been told for years that to SAVE THE PLANET, we have to give up meat, because all those cows emit gasses that cause global warming. Meanwhile, the animal rights activists, who want to eliminate cows and domesticated sheep from the world, jumped on the meme as a way to pitch their ideological wares. Of course, they would be against cattle ranching if it guaranteed pristine air and mild, seasonable weather.
Oops. Apparently, free range cows and sheep might actually reduce greenhouse gasses. From the story:
In the past environmentalists, from Lord Stern to Sir Paul McCartney, have urged people to stop eating meat because the methane produced by cattle causes global warming. However a new study found that cattle grazed on the grasslands of China actually reduce another greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide. Authors of the paper, published in Nature, say the research does not mean that producing livestock to eat is good for the environment in all countries. However in certain circumstances, it can be better for global warming to let animals graze on grassland. The research will reignite the argument over whether to eat red meat after other studies suggested that grass fed cattle in the UK and US can also be good for the environment as long as the animals are free range.
I mention in my new book—and once generated a lot of comments with an NRO piece I wrote, “Veganism is Murder”—a tongue in cheek study that found eating free range meat would end up in the killing of fewer animals then a vegan diet because of all the mice and snakes killed by the mowing combines. I now have a second item to mention in that particular debating theme.
On a more serious note, I can’t believe we are paying scientists to study the level of greenhouse gasses emitted by grasslands in China, and seeing whether they are reduced if consumed by cattle—but that doesn’t mean that cow flatulence still doesn’t CAUSE THE GLACIERS TO MELT because it wasn’t measured! And let us not forget the UK study that said eating meat was better for the environment then vegetarianism there because of the increased global warming consequences of importing soy bean products versus that relative to damage purportedly caused by cow emissions!
Enough already! We are driving ourselves crazy. Besides, regardless of these studies, most people in the world are not going to give up eating—although hegemonic bureaucrats might try to tax herds based on some of this nonsense. Let’s focus our shrinking budgets on issues that can make a material impact in the lives of people—and the global warming potential of grass in China, and comparing the global warming gasses emitted by cows versus those emitted importing food, it seems to me, do not fall into that category.
