When the issue of climate change arises, the fact that meat is one of the main contributors is hardly mentioned. Cows produce methane, which is twenty times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. They also require 3 to 8 pounds of food in order to produce 1 pound of meat.
The first article is addressing the economic side of the problem. Recently, there have been more and more taxes on emission levels through all industries. Measuring and taxing agricultural emissions is a very difficult task, one that would not produce quality control. The study suggests that taxes are placed on meat and milk to encourage people to eat less of it. The study continues to say that with a decrease in the demand for meat that the grazing land could be used for more efficient foods, like beans. Another benefit is that there is no need to wait for technologies that can make food more efficient and that the money could be used to fight global climate change.
One way technology can change the way food is produced is from Vladimir Mironov, a biologist and tissue engineer at the Medical University of South Carolina. He has been working on a way to grow "cultured" meat as an alternative to raising animals for meat. The main goal is to help solve the future global food crisis. One of the advantages of growing meat is that there would be a lot less methane gas released in the atmosphere and less needed to put in to get a pound of meat. He believes that there could be factories that grow meat, any meat, based on what you want.
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