{"id":30356,"date":"2017-11-11T13:08:38","date_gmt":"2017-11-11T08:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=30356"},"modified":"2017-11-11T13:08:38","modified_gmt":"2017-11-11T08:08:38","slug":"research-sheds-light-on-impact-grass-fed-animals-have-on-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=30356","title":{"rendered":"Research sheds light on impact grass-fed animals have on climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"

CANBERRA Nov 11 (TNS):<\/strong> A newly published report dissects claims made by different stakeholders in the debate about so-called \u2018grass-fed\u2019 beef, the greenhouse gases the animals emit, and the possibility that, through their grazing actions, they can help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrazed and Confused? Ruminating on cattle, grazing systems, methane, nitrous oxide, the soil carbon sequestration question \u2013 and what it all means for greenhouse gas emissions\u201d\u00a0was led by Dr Tara Garnett of the Food Climate Research Network at the University of Oxford, C\u00e9cile Godde at Australia\u2019s national science agency the CSIRO and a team of international experts.<\/p>\n

The report finds that while grazing of grass-fed animals can boost the sequestration of carbon in some locally specific circumstances, that effect is time-limited, reversible, and at the global level, substantially outweighed by the greenhouse gas emissions they generate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis report concludes that grass-fed livestock is not a climate solution. Grazing livestock are net contributors to the climate problem, as are all livestock. Rising animal production and consumption, whatever the farming system and animal type, is causing damaging greenhouse gas release and contributing to changes in land use. Ultimately, if high consuming individuals and countries want to do something positive for the climate, maintaining their current consumption levels but simply switching to grass-fed beef is not a solution. Eating less meat, of all types, is,\u201d\u00a0Lead author Dr Tara Garnett explained.<\/p>\n

Dr Tara Garnett adds: \u201cWhen thinking about different livestock production systems there are many important aspects to consider: people\u2019s livelihoods and jobs, animal welfare, biodiversity, nutrition and food security and more. Grazing systems and grass-fed beef may offer benefits in these respects, benefits that will vary by context. But when it comes to climate change, people shouldn\u2019t assume that their grass-fed steak is a climate change-free lunch. It isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report places emphasis on the need to consider animal production and meat consumption if we are to reach the climate goal of a 2-degree warming limit. More than laying out the bones of the grass-fed grazing dispute, the report also helps fill the knowledge gaps about emissions and sequestration and aims to provide more nuance to the debate.<\/p>\n

It reflects two years of close collaboration between researchers at the Universities of Oxford, Aberdeen and Cambridge in the UK; Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands; the Swedish Agricultural University; CSIRO in Australia and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in Switzerland. It is aimed at policymakers, the food industry, civil society and all those concerned with the future of land use, climate change, and the role of livestock in a sustainable food future.<\/p>\n

Lead author C\u00e9cile Godde explains the focus on climate and the significance of these questions for the overall debate on land use and environmental sustainability:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018The big question\u2019 that needs answering is whether farmed animals fit in a sustainable food system, and if so, which farming systems and species are to be preferred. Of course, there are many dimensions to sustainability and this report only considers one of them \u2013 the climate question. But the climate question alone is important to explore and in doing so, this report takes us a step further towards understanding what a sustainable food system looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CANBERRA Nov 11 (TNS): A newly published report dissects claims made by different stakeholders in the debate about so-called \u2018grass-fed\u2019 beef, the greenhouse gases the animals emit, and the possibility that, through their grazing actions, they can help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. \u201cGrazed and Confused? Ruminating on cattle, grazing systems, methane, nitrous oxide, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[732],"class_list":["post-30356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-and-technology","tag-science-and-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30358,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30356\/revisions\/30358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}