Essay by Eric Worrall
… In the context of development progress, animals like cows, goats, camels, and pigs should be seen as “solutions with legs” …
Climate policies must not write off livestock
Cattle when grazed sustainably can be part of climate action and help vulnerable populations build resilience.
Ali Mohamed Climate Envoy in the Office of the President of Kenya
Livestock are a vital component of both the African food system and rural livelihoods. Africa has around 400 million cattle alone, and the livestock sector accounts for a significant 30 to 40 percent of the total agricultural gross domestic product across the continent.
Small amounts of meat, milk and eggs can have life-changing benefits in tackling malnutrition, and livestock animals also provide a reliable income source when alternatives simply do not readily exist.
Yet, from an environmental perspective, livestock are often perceived only as a problem, contributing to habitat loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and land degradation. This narrow view misses a much more nuanced reality. It is also the reason much-needed finance is not being invested in the sector.
…
In the context of development progress, animals like cows, goats, camels, and pigs should be seen as “solutions with legs” in combatting these intensifying climate and environmental crises at scale.
…
Read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/10/21/climate-policies-must-not-write-off-livestock
While there are plenty of places cattle are grazed which could also be used for growing vegetables, cattle farming is also viable in places where vegetables simply shrivel up and die.
Grazing also improves grassland health – grasslands need to be grazed. Ecologists once believed the opposite, that grazing degrades grassland and increases the risk of desertification. This wildly wrong belief led to the slaughter of over 40,000 elephants – before one of the ecologists who helped organise the slaughter realised to his horror it was all a big mistake.
There are other considerations. On Monday this week a medical specialist I see for an annual checkup told me I had to eat more meat, his advice was I had to replace most of the carbohydrates in my diet with meat. Vegetables are mostly carbohydrates, so I have to cut back on vegetables, particularly starchy vegetables like Potatoes.
There are plenty of other people in my situation.
Reducing meat in the global diet would create a lot of sick people and, in time, a lot of prematurely dead people.
But who knows, maybe some greens see quietly killing off the hundreds of millions of people who medically require meat rich diets as a milestone towards their goal to reduce global population.
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Opposing animal agriculture has a long history with greens. While there is such a thing as overgrazing, the proliferation of brush in areas with seasonal rains just leads to fires. I get the impression that their level of understanding is Bambi movies.
If you watch the video in the “how to green the deserts” link, the secret in harsh climates is nomadic herding – the herd grazes and moves on, no overgrazing necessary. Nomadic herding is the most sustainable way to make a living over large swathes of Africa.
Aldo in more developed areas such as the UK and USA.
sarc, right?
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They all emit methane, and anyone who is in touch with climate issues knows at cows, goats, camels, and pigs emit methane which is 86 times more powerful at trapping heat than CO2.
Obviously the cows, pigs, camels & goats should be slaughtered in short order and replaced by windmills and solar panels. I mean, really are they not paying attention to the important issues in our modern world?
</sarc>
86x more powerful than CO2 in the lab in a standard dry atmosphere. No power at all in the real world with ~2% specific humidity.
I”d be interested to know if anyone ha a link to specific lab measurements that support the 86 times number or any similar amplified effect for methane vs CO2. I’ve sure I’ve seen a UN climate committee report that falsely claims a higher relative effect just because methane is a smaller portion of the atmosphere, but give me a break, I don’t mean that!
Is there anything real that shows an exaggerated IR effect for one CH4 molecule vs one CO2? Do we have any explanation as to why 4 symmetrically placed hydrogens around a carbon atom would bounce around so much more effectively for trapping infrared, compared to a couple of oxygens attached to a carbon?
I’ve looked for sources on this in the past, but never come up with anything concrete that compares volume for volume, or molecule for molecule.
You should look into the absorption/emission spectrums of the two substances, as well as H2O. This issue has been covered by multiple research projects.
Meat contains Castle intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The extrinsic factor is vitamin B12 and intrinsic factor is protein that facilitates transfer of vitamin B12 from food into the blood. You should eat a little meat everyday. You also should take vitamin and mineral pill
everyday.
Kenya is right, but for two reasons rather than one.
How the vegan thing hitched its wagon to the climate thing is explainable by looking at the Venn diagram of the proponent sets overlap. Scientific illiteracy times two.
Just as it’s good to see developing countries like India and Indonesia ignore the climate alarmists and exploit their vast coal reserves to boost electricity output, it’s equally gratifying to see ones like Kenya reject green demands to cut livestock production. Those countries have large populations to sustain and don’t need more affluent ones dictating the procedures needed to save the planet while keeping the Third World impoverished and undernourished.
A girl friend (some years ago) was vegan. Then, one day, she ordered cake with her meal.
I noticed and asked how could she eat cake made from animal products.
She replied that she like to treat herself.
I found another girl friend.
Lefties are consistent about being hypocrites.
Separate comment to Eric about diet, something I studied for almost 2 years while writing Gaia’s Limits.
Meats of all sorts, including non-ruminant pork, poultry, and fish, are essential for protein building amino acids, and should comprise a major calory part of any diet. That is how humans evolved big brains. Lots more there than B12, plus fat to make D and E more bioavailable.
Carbohydrates come in two basic forms, simple (potatoes, white bread, white rice) and complex (whole wheat, wild rice, oatmeal). The complex carbs are much better for you for two reasons. First, they are slower to digest so avoid a ‘sugar high’. Second, they also provide fiber—essential for proper gut function.
Some vegetables are high in carbohydrates. You mention potatoes. An example our vet told us about—causing us to wean our slightly overweight dog off raw carrot treats (which she loved) onto blanched green bean treats (which she then learned to love)—is carrots. But there are many low to no carbohydrate vegetables including green beans, spinach, kale, lettuce, bell peppers, tomatoes (yechnically a fruit), onions, scallions, cabbages, and such. (I will be making batayaki (bok choy cabbage with teriyaki tenderized otherwise tough cheap stew beef) with brown rice for dinner on Saturday. So don’t skimp on healthy vegetables. Lots of flavors plus essential minerals, and tomatoes also provide lycopene if not overcooked.
Diet is complicated. For instance – tomatoes have lectins unless you avoid the skin and seeds. Name the food and someone can come up with a caution…unless of course it is some forever chemicals spiced with microplastics and lotsa salt and sugar.
A basic logic problem I have with the current green hysteria about ‘forever chemicals’.
If they are really ‘forever’, then they are also essentially biologically inert by definition. And therefore do not matter at all to the environment.
Much Ado about Nothing. The Bard had it right long ago.
“stew beef”
Twice when I hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon carrying 60 pounds on my back- I had a meal at the ranch at the bottom- what they called “Irish stew”- mostly beef with some potato and carrots. I was pleased that it wasn’t tofu. That beef never tasted so good. For desert, they offered chocolate cake with dark chocolate frosting. Paradise!
Oooh, yes.
Even a pizza after hiking back up to the south rim was heavenly.
I took 2 days to get out- stopped at Indian Gardens- about half way. The next day hiking out- was a blizzard! Got to the top with my face covered with snow and icicles. Went into the lodge where they have a dinner of sorts. Had the greatest burger ever. The Grand Canyon is special to me. And, I’ve studied the geology there which is awesome.
That brings back some fond memories.
We hiked down the South Kaibab trail, spent 2 nights at Phantom Ranch, then back up Bright Angel. That was mid October, and still quite warm.
It took ages to get the Phantom Ranch bookings, but it was totally worth it.
I think it took about 10 hours to come back up Bright Angel – lots of short rest breaks. Thank goodness for the drinking water availability on that trail. I think we took 2 gallons each down, but only needed half that coming back up.
There are some spectacular hikes in that part of the country, along with the scenery in general.
A flaw in many vegetarian diets is they do not have the necessary combinations of amino acids.
Telling Africans who have nurtured livestock as far back as their history goes to stop this practice would end of any thought of introducing climate change goals to the continent. Not only does the livestock provide food but they are regarded as a measure of wealth as well.
Well. Mr. Beel wants to eliminate meat except for lab grown stuff….and Mr. Beel is now one of the largest farm land owners in the USA.
The Maasai that live in Kenya and Tanzania, are semi nomadic tribesmen. Teenage boys
herd the goats, the women tend crop land and the men manage the cattle. Some
say the kids and women do all the work and the men sit back relax 🙂 But I disagree.
Goats are browsers not grazers, cattle eat the grass. They eat the goats and sell the cows.
More humans live off of goat meat than any other meat around the world due to the fact that a goat can be butchered then promptly eaten. A cow needs to be refrigerated to prevent spoilage which is non existent outside the cities. East Africa is a very interesting place. The human death toll
from predators especially women in the crop land is very high.
Methanogens are the earliest lifeforms. They have already contributed mightily to atmospheric evolution and climate change. Herbivores can be viewed as optimum operating environment for methanogens to thrive inside – essentially protein factories with methane as a byproduct.
If the protein factories did not exist, would there be a reduction in methanogens? .There is an estimated 7Gt of archaea currently living on the planet. This is more than three times the estimated mass of all animals.
Every day it is more apparent that life is prevailing over UN anti-life doctrine. Humans, notably in China and India, are doing the heaving lifting in getting CO2 levels above survival mode for plant life. The improving productivity of biomass is helping to retain moisture on land which begets more moisture and makes life on land more abundant. The Sahara is greening. Australia is greening. Crop productivity is increasing. And the anti-lifers want to cut down the trees, remove the animals to install solar panels and still the air be extracting all the wind energy.
Late October and there is already enough atmospheric moisture over a good portion of Australia to support convective instability.
Kenya is now getting funding from China. The attached strings are not as constraining as IMF loans.
Very nice.
“Yet, from an environmental perspective, livestock are often perceived only as a problem, contributing to habitat loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and land degradation.”
Livestock are only seen as a problem by liars and cheats. To hell with them.
In the UK, sustainable farming with livestock is called ‘regenerative agriculture’. This is due to the net effect of such actions being a net transfer of carbon from the atmosphere into the soil.
Animals serve many functions in an holistic farming system:
Permaculture aka Permanent Agriculture documents much of this and more.
You don’t stop humans breeding just because a few psychopaths imprison women, do you?
Nor should you stop farmers rearing livestock responsibly just because a few profiteers seek to engage in battery farming to maximise profits at the expense of animal welfare, soil health etc etc.
“Ecologists once believed the opposite, that grazing degrades grassland and increases the risk of desertification.”
They never said it quite like that. They were talking about overgrazing- which has happened in places. Of course now they’d like to get of all grazing.
The only “evil” caused by CO2 or other GH gasses has been caused by those seeking the power via controlling CO2 or other GH gasses.
The only “herd” they are out to cull is people.
The smaller the “herd”, the easier to control.
Odd as many eco-activists praise hunter-gatherer societies thus eating meat.
Oh, Keith – why do you expect consistency from anti-human Marxism-founded activists?
(Their base ideology even praises contradictions.)
But hunter-gatherers are Vegan 🙂