7 November 2016
In Polly Ericksen’s “Let’s ‘meat’ in the middle on climate change”, she fights against the common, simple solution of becoming vegetarian to combat climate change and its ability to contribute to global development. Ericksen describes how this process if much more complex and the solution depends on the type of land people live in. Ericksen describes how developing world’s ways of growing food could help combat climate change. This article is about how the process of making food in developing worlds can help the people in developed. There is an emphasis of finding “a middle ground” between food production and reducing carbon dioxide. Ericksen describes the abundance and under-appreciation of meat and dairy products produced by developed countries. (Whereas, in other countries “a billion people earning less than US$2 a day around the world depend on livestock for their livelihoods”). These countries have livestock that feed on rainfall, which makes them less “carbon intensive” compared to the industrial systems. Livestock grazing also hides large amounts of carbon within the soils. In Mark Hertsgaard’s “How to Feed the World After Climate Change”, he explains how industrial agriculture is harming the environment and how ecological agriculture increases “the soil’s fertility and ability to retain water”. Therefore, this is exemplifying the idea of natural growing and using manure as fertilizer. Ericksen continues to vouch for developing world tactics by saying livestock are more adaptable to climate change and unpredictable weather. Therefore, describing them as “an essential component to broad sustainable development”. In developed worlds, people have access to a more diverse set of food, which according to Ericksen, leads to less impact on the climate. As mentioned in Mark Bittmann’s “Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler”, people are encouraged to eat less meat because of the impact the production has on the climate and environment. As the population grows, there is more production of meat and therefore more feed (corn and soy) is needed. The whole assembly line contributes to increased greenhouse gas emissions. They can also help to reduce climate change by reducing waste. A majority of the impact from waste happens when people are consuming the food; they throw out the unused food and scraps. If developed worlds adapted different techniques for growing and maintain food, then this would be a good start to slowing down climate change.
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