Some Beef is Actually Good for Planet Earth (WSJ)
Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2014 1:25 pm
Yes!
Actually, Raising Beef Is Good for the Planet
Despite environmentalists’ worries, cattle don’t guzzle water or cause hunger—and can help fight climate change
By NICOLETTE HAHN NIMAN
Dec. 19, 2014 6:12 p.m. ET
Actually, Raising Beef Is Good for the Planet
Despite environmentalists’ worries, cattle don’t guzzle water or cause hunger—and can help fight climate change
By NICOLETTE HAHN NIMAN
Dec. 19, 2014 6:12 p.m. ET
http://goo.gl/GQ1HE5People who advocate eating less beef often argue that producing it hurts the environment. Cattle, we are told, have an outsize ecological footprint: They guzzle water, trample plants and soils, and consume precious grains that should be nourishing hungry humans. Lately, critics have blamed bovine burps, flatulence and even breath for climate change.
As a longtime vegetarian and environmental lawyer, I once bought into these claims. But now, after more than a decade of living and working in the business—my husband, Bill, founded Niman Ranch but left the company in 2007, and we now have a grass-fed beef company—I’ve come to the opposite view. It isn’t just that the alarm over the environmental effects of beef are overstated. It’s that raising beef cattle, especially on grass, is an environmental gain for the planet.
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