According to this article from newscientist.com, 'a kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on back home.'
According to this article about the same report, 'The calculations based on standard industrial methods of meat production in Japan did not include the impact of managing farm infrastructure and transporting the meat - so the total environmental load is higher than the study suggests.' From the same article: 'Japanese researchers worked out putting a kilogram of beef (2.2lbs) on the dinner table is equivalent to the amount of CO2 emitted by the average car every 155 miles'
According to this article, 'A similar study at Aarhus University in Denmark showed that most of the greenhouse gases and environmental pollution produced in the production of pig meat comes not from transport, as many believe, but through the production of feed and the rearing of the animals.
“There is very little carbon dioxide from transport, it also comes from other production practices,” said Randi Dalgaard, one of the study team at Aarhus University.
She said the study had shown that it took 3.5 kg of CO2 to produce and ship 1kg of pork from Denmark to the UK.'
And: '“Transport contributes just 1.5 per cent of the total greenhouse gases emitted from the production chain of pork,” said Ms Dalgaard.'
Based on environmental concerns, the Swedish 'Livsmedelverket' (the part of the Department of Agriculture that deals with food and nutrition) is now recommending people to eat less meat.
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