ANIMALS need to be produced in a smarter manner - not in fewer numbers - to address environmental issues related to climate change, according to Frank Mitloehner, an associate professor and air quality specialist at the University of California-Davis.
Decreasing meat and milk production will only result in more hunger in poor countries - not a cleaner or cooler environment, he said in response to critics of meat and milk production who blame livestock for significant global warming.
Mitloehner said these critics fail to understand the relationship among animal and food production, animal digestion, human activities and atmospheric chemistry.
He traced much of this lack of understanding to two sentences in a 2006 United Nations report, Livestock's Long Shadow, which stated that the "livestock sector is a major player, responsible for 18 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in carbon dioxide equivalents. This is higher than transport."
He said findings in the US show that livestock production accounts for only 2.8pc of emissions in the US, while transportation accounts for 26pc.
Accordingly, he said the focus should be on creating more efficient livestock production and transferring livestock production technology to developing countries where people need a more abundant and nutritious food supply.
In making similar points, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association recently added that the entire agriculture sector represents just 6pc of total US emissions and that land use, land use change and forestry activities cause net carbon sequestration of 17.4pc of total US carbon dioxide emissions, or 14.9pc of total US greenhouse gas emissions.
Eating confidently
In addition to being efficient and environmentally sustainable, the US meat supply also is safe, according to the American Meat Institute (AMI), which noted that the meat industry "is the most inspected and regulated" in the US and that the industry has "an excellent food safety record that reflects progress".
AMI said a number of recent news stories have questioned the safety of the meat supply - particularly the safety of the beef supply - and listed several points in response, including:
* Almost 8000 federal food inspectors oversee 6200 meat plants across the country. Plants that process live animals have inspectors on site during every minute of livestock processing and meat production, and large plants have as many as 24 inspectors on site who are authorized to halt production at any time and prevent meat from entering commerce.
* Since 2000, the incidence of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in ground beef has decreased 45pc to less than 0.5pc of production, based on U.S. Department of Agriculture sampling data.
* Since 2000, the incidence of E. coli O157:H7 infections in people has decreased 44pc, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.
* Since 2000, the incidence of salmonella in ground beef has decreased more than 50pc, based on USDA sampling data.
* Meat products carry federally mandated safe handling labels that offer advice for preparing the products so they are cooked thoroughly to destroy any bacteria remaining on the products and are safe to consume.
"Food safety data show that we (the meat industry) take our responsibility seriously" to produce safe and wholesome food, AMI president J. Patrick Boyle said.
"We confidently feed our families the same meat products that we sell to our customers in the US and around the world."
Outliving apes
In addition to being efficiently produced, environmentally sustainable and safe, meat might well be behind the reason people live longer lives than any other primate, according to biologist Caleb Finch at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Cal.
Apes and chimpanzees are genetically similar to humans but rarely live more than 50 years, and it is possible that genetic changes that allow people to live longer are attributable to eating a more carnivorous diet than apes and chimps, he told the LiveScience program on TechMediaNetwork.
The human lifespan has doubled in the last 200 years due to decreased infant mortality and improvements in diets, medicine and the environment, and even in societies that are less advanced, people still live longer than apes and chimps, Finch said.
He suggested that this is related to a genetic change that has permitted people to consume meat-rich diets.
Some of the oldest stone tools ever made suggest that early humans made tools 2.6 million years ago to butcher animals, and as they evolved, they became more adapted to digesting meat, a high-energy food, Finch said.
In the era before cooking, eating meat that was infected with parasites caused chronic inflammation to which people developed unique variants in a cholesterol-transporting gene, apolipoprotein E (ApoE), that regulates not only this inflammation but many aspects of aging in the arteries and brain, he explained.
In fact, one such variant found in modern populations, ApoE3, emerged some 250,000 years ago and decreases the risk of most age-related diseases, specifically Alzheimer's disease and heart disease, Finch said.
He theorised that ApoE3 evolved to lower the risk of degenerative disease from high-fat meat diets. It also is linked to brain development and longer life, he said.
Here's the point
SOME sources came to the defense of meat recently, and not all of them are associated with the meat industry.
An air quality specialist said livestock production casts a much smaller carbon footprint than critics say because those critics - who argue that livestock and, therefore, meat production contribute to global warming - are using erroneous information and don't understand the differences between animal and human activities and atmospheric chemistry. He said decreasing livestock production would not only have no real effect on global warming but would deny hungry people the benefits of meat and milk.
In addition, a biologist said meat, which people have been consuming for more than 2 million years, has, over time, stimulated the development of genes that have decreased age-related diseases, promoted brain development and let people live longer and more productive lives.
Also, a meat industry official commented on meat safety, noting that the industry is highly inspected and has initiated important interventions and taken other steps in the last 10 years to make meat safer and more wholesome. He noted that in the last 10 years, the meat industry, based on the US Department of Agriculture's own sampling, has significantly decreased the prevalence of Escherichia coli O157:H7, salmonella and other bacteria on meat.
These are important messages for people struggling to sort through conflicting and confusing arguments and claims about livestock, meat and milk production. Information on these matters and other aspects of modern US agriculture can be found at www.FeedstuffsFood Link.com.
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