An Inconvenient Cow

In late November of 2006, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization released a startling report. Its official title is “Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options.”1 References to this report have been frequent in the last year, especially on environmental and nutrition- related fronts. The report accuses the cow of the worst environmental crimes—land degradation, water pollution, acid rain, biodiversity and habitat loss, desertification, deforestation, and foremost among the headlines, global warming. Cows and other ruminants are responsible for generating 65 percent of anthropogenic nitrous-oxide, 64 percent of ammonia, and 37 percent of the world’s methane, the U.N. scientists declare.

Ancillary reports that expound upon these figures are everywhere. The American media have enjoyed selling the annihilator-cow theme to an audience conditioned by anti-animal foods propaganda and environmental fabrications, such as the “fact” that greedy farmers in the Amazon eradicate rainforest for more and more land to graze their cattle.

Syndicated nutrition columnists present us with lists of environmentally friendly food choices, invariably free of any and all animal products, and environmentalists cite the report as further evidence to keep cattle out of national parks and “protected” public lands.

Leave a Comment