Our biggest beef is with beef
Animal agriculture takes a greater toll on the climate and environment than crop agriculture. But when you’re trying to minimize the climate impact of your food choices, it’s helpful to understand that different types of livestock make different contributions to global warming. And cows are the most problematic from this perspective.
Just like people, cows produce gas as their bodies digest food. But cows’ stomachs, unlike ours, have a compartment where microbes ferment their food, and methane—a potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to climate change—is a biproduct of that process. A cow can produce 154 to 264 pounds of methane gas per year. No other type of livestock generates this much methane, and the world has a billion and a half cows.
The greenhouse gas emissions associated with beef are almost twice those for the next-biggest offender (lamb) per pound of protein, according to the New York Times’ excellent, simple 2019 primer on the climate change impact of various foods. From meats that produce the most greenhouse gas emissions to those producing the least, the order goes 1) beef, 2) lamb, 3) pork, 4) farmed fish, and 5) poultry.
So if you’re cutting back on meat to help fight the climate crisis, start with beef.