Читать книгу Zero Waste Cooking For Dummies - Rosanne Rust - Страница 45

Some people believe that eating less meat is the answer to reducing the toll that agriculture, as a whole, takes on the earth. That may sound like a simple solution, but it’s not so simple.

A recent movement aims to replace meat with other forms of protein. As of now, it’s hard to say what the final answers will be, but it’ll likely be a combination of compromises. As previously mentioned, sustainability requires economic viability to be upheld. Critics are quick to point the finger at beef in particular, for producing excess methane (through burps primarily). They believe that ruminant animals like cows are key polluters when it comes to GHG. A lot of sources of data exist but no agreement on how the data is collected and what it means overall.

In contrast, some people believe that grazing animals can play a positive role in changing the climate. Proponents of grazing livestock argue that grazing affects soil carbon so livestock can actually be a potential tool to help reduce atmospheric carbon.

Perhaps this idea that reducing meat consumption can reduce GHG emission is part of the reasons livestock production has come under criticism. Concerns about animal welfare are often part of the discussion as well. If you’ve ever seen a horrifying video of a farm animal being poorly cared for, I’m here to reassure you that ranchers in the U.S. put animal welfare at the top of their priority list.

According to the Animal Agriculture Alliance, farm families take proper care for their animals very seriously. The Alliance helps support ranchers by providing species-specific animal care guidelines, from beef to poultry to eggs, pork, veal, and lamb. The U.S. meat packing industry is also regulated by the Humane Slaughter Act and is monitored during all operations to ensure compliance. Animal welfare expert Dr. Temple Grandin developed specific guidelines to reduce stress on the animals. In 1997, she partnered with the North American Meat Institute to develop an audit program (the Humane Handling Guidelines and Audit Guide) to ensure that food animals are treated humanely throughout all processes.

There’s a difference between animal welfare and animal rights. Treating livestock humanely isn’t the same as treating it as human. Animal rights activists believe that animals shouldn’t be used as food, clothing, or experimentation. Animal welfare proponents believe this is acceptable, as long as strict guidelines are in place to treat the animal humanely.

Not only is livestock in the United States raised humanely, but it’s also raised with specific nutrition. Animals are fed specific formularies to preserve resources and to reduce unnecessary outputs. For instance, overfeeding can be harmful to both the animal and the environment.

Animals are raised to provide nutritious, affordable protein to your plate. As human science grew to understand that saturated fat in the diet may be linked to disease, animal scientists responded to lower the fat of livestock. By making modifications to animal feed, the final food product is lower in fat.