As far as environmental ethics issues go, this one takes the cake. But research done in New Zealand by the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium suggest that eating meat from animals that produce significant amounts of gases that harm the environment simply will not do. Instead, eat a kangaroo!
Before, I make this sound too much like a Dr. Seuss book, this was reported by The New Scientist, and there is good science behind the claim. Ruminants (animals that emit through their chewing of cud) carbon dioxide contribute a significant amount of greenhouse gas. As the article puts it, quite eloquently:
Worldwide, livestock burps are responsible for 18 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions – more than produced from all forms of transport combined.
Now, is the solution to eat roos? I’m not so sure. There are chickens after all, sea creatures, and other things that do not burp. But the point is well made, the more of these livestock we humans consume the more we contribute to the greenhouse gas problem and climate change. That’s something to think about before you order your next lamb chop.
Summer Johnson, PhD