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Meat must be rationed to four portions a week, says report on climate change• 

Study looks at food impact on greenhouse gases 


• Return to old-fashioned cooking habits urgedAll comments (41) Juliette 
Jowit The Guardian, Tuesday September 30 2008 Article historyPeople will have 
to be rationed to four modest portions of meat and one litre of milk a week 
if the world is to avoid run-away climate change, a major new report warns.

The report, by the Food Climate Research Network, based at the University of 
Surrey, also says total food consumption should be reduced, especially "low 
nutritional value" treats such as alcohol, sweets and chocolates.

It urges people to return to habits their mothers or grandmothers would have 
been familiar with: buying locally in-season products, cooking in bulk and in 
pots with lids or pressure cookers, avoiding waste and walking to the shops - 
alongside more modern tips such as using the microwave and internet shopping.

The report goes much further than any previous advice after mounting concern 
about the impact of the livestock industry on greenhouse gases and rising 
food prices. It follows a four-year study of the impact of food on climate 
change and is thought to be the most thorough study of its kind.

Tara Garnett, the report's author, warned that campaigns encouraging people 
to change their habits voluntarily were doomed to fail and urged the 
government to use caps on greenhouse gas emissions and carbon pricing to 
ensure changes were made. "Food is important to us in a great many cultural 
and symbolic ways, and our food choices are affected by cost, time, habit and 
other influences," the report says. "Study upon study has shown that 
awareness-raising campaigns alone are unlikely to work, particularly when it 
comes to more difficult changes."

The report's findings are in line with an investigation by the October 
edition of the Ecologist magazine, which found that arguments for people to 
go vegetarian or vegan to stop climate change and reduce pressure on rising 
food prices were exaggerated and would damage the developing world in 
particular, where many people depend on animals for essential food, other 
products such as leather and wool, and for manure and help in tilling fields 
to grow other crops. 

Instead, it recommended cutting meat consumption by at least half and making 
sure animals were fed as much as possible on grass and food waste which could 
not be eaten by humans. 

"The notion that cows and sheep are four-legged weapons of mass destruction 
has become something of a distraction from the real issues in both climate 
change and food production," said Pat Thomas, the Ecologist's editor.

The head of the United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change, 
Rajendra Pachauri, also sparked global debate this month when he urged people 
to have at least one meat-free day a week.

The Food Climate Research Network found that measured by production, the UK 
food sector produces greenhouse gases equivalent to 33m tonnes of carbon. 
Measured by consumption - including imports - the total rises to 43.3m 
tonnes. Both figures work out at under one fifth of UK emissions, but they 
exclude the indirect impacts of actions such as clearing rainforest for 
cattle and crops, which other studies estimate would add up to 5% to 20% of 
global emissions.

The report found the meat and dairy sectors together accounted for just over 
half of those emissions; potatoes, fruit and vegetables for 15%; drinks and 
other products with sugar for another 15%; and bread, pastry and flour for 
13%.

It also revealed which parts of the food chain were the most polluting. 
Although packaging has had a lot of media and political attention, it only 
ranked fifth in importance behind agriculture - especially the methane 
produced by livestock burping - manufacturing, transport, and cooking and 
refrigeration at home. 

The report calls for meat and dairy consumption to be cut in developed 
countries so that global production remains stable as the population grows to 
an estimated 9bn by 2050. 

At the same time emissions from farms, transport, manufacturing and retail 
could be cut, with improvements including more efficient use of fertilisers, 
feed and energy, changed diets for livestock, and more renewable fuels - 
leading to a total reduction in emissions from the sector of 50% to 67%, it 
says. 

The UN and other bodies recommend that developed countries should reduce 
total emissions by 80% by 2050.

However, the National Farmers' Union warned that its own study, with other 
industry players, published last year, found net emissions from agriculture 
could only be cut by up to 50% if the carbon savings from building renewable 
energy sources on farms were taken into account. 

The NFU also called for government incentives to help farmers make the 
changes. "Farmers aren't going to do this out of the goodness of their 
hearts, because farmers don't have that luxury; many of our members are very 
hard pressed at the moment," said Jonathan Scurlock, the NFU's chief adviser 
on renewable energy and climate change.

Different diets
The way we eat now (average person in the UK, per week)

1.6kg meat and 4.2 litres of milk, which is equivalent to:

6 sausages (450g)

2 chicken breasts (350g)

4 ham sandwiches (100g)

8 slices of bacon (250g)

3 burgers (450g)

3 litres of milk

100g of cheese and a helping of cream

Future recommended diet (average person, per week)

500g of meat and 1 litre of milk, which is equivalent to:

1 quarter-pound beefburger

2 sausages

3 rashers of bacon

1 chicken breast 

1 litre of milk or 100g of cheese

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/30/food.ethicalliving