Skip
a Burger, Save the Planet
May 2008 - Source: David Beard, Boston.com
 Ronald
McDonald won't be happy with the column by Derrick
Jackson in the Boston Globe. Nor with the poster
being distributed for Earth Day, a.k.a. Low Carbon
Diet Day.
"With fatal food riots in poor nations, and
with China rapidly approaching Western levels of
consumption, we in the obese United States must redefine
what constitutes, to borrow from McDonald's, a 'happy
meal,''' Jackson
writes. "Scientists are concluding
that along with more fuel-efficient cars and curbing
industrial pollution, the simple act of eating less
meat could help slow global warming.''
Quoting from
a study in British medical journal the Lancet, Jackson writes that stabilizing agricultural
production requires a 10 percent cut in meat consumption.
The study notes the significant amount of methane
and nitrous oxide already being released (including
flatulence and gases from manure) in global meat
and milk production, which is on course to double
by 2050.
Check out what the company providing food to MIT,
several other local universities and Cisco Systems
in Boxborough has done in response. Bon Appetit Management
Company, which serves 80 million meals a year nationwide,
is committing
to reduce its carbon emissions by 25 percent, cutting beef and cheese purchases by that
percentage and choosing only meats raised in North
America. It will stop purchasing any air freighted
seafood and buy only local or frozen-at-sea fish.
Still don't believe this carbon footprint business
about meat and dairy? Check out Gary Hirshberg's new book, "Stirring It Up,'' in which the CE-Yo
of New Hampshire-based Stonyfield Yogurt says the
biggest source of carbon emissions in his operation
is, no kidding, cows! By the way, ask
a question now to Hirshberg here (he'll be chatting with Boston.com
readers on green business at 10 a.m. Friday.) Here's
an insightful interview with him last month from
the green site Treehugger.
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