New Israeli Research: Skip the Beef, Help the Planet An Israeli research team just calculated the environmental toll of the foods we eat and the results shocked even them. While vegetables have long been known to be more earth-healthy than meat, research leaders Israelis Ron Milo and Gidon Eshkol focused their efforts on the environmental impact of animal products. Milo, who conducted his research at Weizmann Institute of Science, explained why the information that gleaned from their research is important to consumers and the planet. “Where the environment and sustainability are concerned, much of our work had been focused on renewable energies and the like,” Milo told ISRAEL21c. “But it was clear that the food we consume also has a great effect on the environment.” His team also found that despite the increase in sustainability research, there was little data on how individuals can help the planet by what we put on our plate. “As scientists, we were surprised to discover not only are the facts and figures outdated – the more recent being from the 1960s – but it’s often not clear what they are based on or how they were calculated,” Milo explained. To measure each products environmental impact, the Israeli team considered and use, irrigation water, greenhouse gas emissions and nitrogen fertilizer use and focused on five animal products: dairy, beef, poultry, pork and eggs. Surprisingly, the team found that the environmental impact of eating cheese was just as high as eating pork or poultry. Most significantly, based on the data they used from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, beef hogged far more resources than any other product. “For the same amount of calories, cattle require on average 28 times more land and 11 times more irrigation water,” Milo said. “They are responsible for releasing five times more greenhouse gases, and they consume six times as much nitrogen.” Even with the results, Milo isn’t advocating everyone become a vegetarian. He did suggest though, that consumers think about their environmental impact of what they put on their plate. “When given a choice between beef and poultry, I usually opt for the latter,” he said, encouraging others to choose more planet-healthy options when possible. The post New Israeli Research: Skip the Beef, Help the Planet appeared first on Jspace News. ift.tt/1tT6q29
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 16:23:28 +0000
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