Cows are 10 times as hard on the environment as pigs and
chickens, according to a joint study by researchers in Israel and the United
States.
The Weizmann Institute of Science at Rehovot,
Israel, conducted the study with Americans and they have published their
findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Cattle require 28 times more land, 11 times
more irrigation water, emit five times more greenhouse gases and eat crops that
require six times as much nitrogen as eggs or poultry, according to the study.
Poultry, pork, eggs and dairy all came out
fairly similar.
The research team says that was surprising
because dairy production is often thought to be relatively environmentally benign.
But the research shows that the price of
irrigating and fertilizing the crops fed to dairy cows – as well as the
relative inefficiency of cows in comparison to other livestock – boosts the
cost significantly.
So what I'd really like to know is how cows stack up against cars.
