AfricaAPN

African Cows

Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) findings show that effect of livestock production on global warming is more than all the world’s cars, buses, planes and trains combined.

The biological reality according to FAO findings is that ruminants– cows and sheep– generate a powerful greenhouse gas (methane) through their normal digestive process.

Second, no matter the farming method, livestock makes manure that produces nitrous oxide. Compared to CO₂ nitrous oxide is 296 times more powerful at trapping heat while methane is 23 times more powerful. Simply put, our lifestyle and what we put on the plate will accelerate or decelerate global warming.

Could we then as a nation eat a lot less meat and encourage our pastoral communities to cut down on their livestock numbers so as to put brakes on the climate change? Frankly, vegetarianism looks inevitable in the near future.