Important Article on "Bad Science" Surrounding Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Beware of Bad Science

Friends and AWA Farmers,

We want to draw your attention to our latest blog refuting the claim that "greenhouse gas emissions per pound of beef are increased three-fold in grass-fed beef cattle."

In light of the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board's (CBPRB),  current, one-week "food fight ... against the onslaught of...electronic platforms that allow anti-meat brigades to spread information far and wide in the blink of an eye," we at Animal Welfare Approved, once again, promote humane, sustainable, pasture-based, family farming as the middle ground and potential solution.

On November 5, a “news article” appeared word-for-word across countless livestock-related websites – including Drovers, Dairy Herd, Cattle Network, AgWired, DairyLine, Beef Magazine, and so on. No journalist is cited as the author on any of the sites where it is published, an indication that the piece was not a ”news article” at all but a press release issued by an unidentified  source.
 

Entitled “Environmentally Friendly Food Myths Debunked,” the news article provided coverage of a presentation given by Dr. Jude Capper at the 71st Cornell Nutrition Conference in October 2009. Her presentation reported findings from a recent paper co-authored with R.A. Cady and D.E. Bauman, entitled, “Demystifying the Environmental Sustainability of Food Production.”
The article quotes Dr. Capper – who is assistant professor of dairy sciences at Washington State University – as claiming that the “intuitively correct” food choice made by today’s consumers is actually often the least environmentally friendly option. The article went on to justify the paper’s position:
 

“Pasture- or grass-fed meat is growing in popularity, with the perception that it is more eco-friendly than conventionally produced beef. However, the time needed to grow an animal to slaughter weight is nearly double that of animals fed corn. This means that energy use and greenhouse gas emissions per pound of beef are increased three-fold in grass-fed beef cattle. Again, the intuitively environmentally friendly option has a far higher resource and environmental cost.”
 

Dr. Capper went on to rally the delegates present (who were mostly animal nutritionists), calling for the food industry “to use a whole-system approach and assess environmental impact per gallon of milk, pound of beef or dozen eggs, not per farm or per acre.”

To read the full blog, refuting the misguided paper, "Demystifying the Environmental Sustainability of Food Production," visit the Animal Welfare Approved blog.