My notes from a BBC documentary about meat production, its effects on the environment - and the solutions

1. Should we eat meat
And incredible BBC Horizon documentary by
Michael Lachmann, with so many interesting
figures I really didn't want to loose them :-)
This is the result of my notes and a few screen shots

2. The world eats each year
● 300 million cattle
● 1.4 billion pigs
● 1.6 billion sheep
● 5 million horses
● 2 million camels
● 3.5 billion ducks and turkeys
● 60 billion chickens
● i.e. 9 animals/person

3. One third of the total ice free land
mass is used by animals

4. Grazing land – ¼ ice free land mass
One third of crops grown are for animal feed
This is 70% more land than one century ago
Cows eat 50kg grass to produce 1kg muscle
What's
that?
Flint Hills in Texas (former “wild west” LOL)

5. A methane detector
(used to control gas
pipes) where a 1000
ppm leak is serious
Walking among the cows, we see reading of up to 4874 ppm when
Michael Mosley walks past a belching cow :-)
A cow produces 500lt day of methane (a more potent
greenhous gass than CO2)
Greenhouse gas contibution of a cow is the same as that of a family car.
400 million cows 100 years ago
1.5 billion cows today
10% of greenhouse gas comes from cows!

6. Animal Science dept
Direct access: 60 gallons
In cow's rumen
Microbes from the
rumen pass into the
small intestine where
they are digested (and
provide protein!)
Change the microbes
to produce less gas?

7. CAFO or feed yard in Amarillo: Texas
Cattle arrive 1 year old and leave 6
months later, 300kg heavier
Owner claims eco-friendly > more meat
less resources.

8. Corn based feed – twice as much growth in half the time
40% less emissions/kg of meat
Precise feed mix for each age
(over the 6 months fattening,
including 2% liquid fat )
… and also antibiotics and
growth hormone – Rumensin –
whose use is banned in
Europe

9. Total Carbon Footprint, UN figures
●
Methane from digestion: 2.8 billion tons/year
●
Managing manure: 700 million tons/year
●
Cutting down trees: 700 million tons/year
●
Growing crops for animals: 2.6 billion tons
●
Transporting crops: 100 million tons
●
Total 14.7% of man-made greenhouse gas
●
Industrial agriculture also uses oil for pesticides and machines
●
Water for irrigation

11. Destroying countryside in Argentina
and Brazil to feed animals in Europe

12. Which type of meat is
the most “efficient” ?
Protein per
100g
CO2 per kilo
Cattle 450 16kg
Sheep 13kg
Pigs (omnivore) 110 5kg
chicken 75 4.4kg
These figures are a bit wobbly – I tried to check them out elswhere… needs revision !

13. Rarely see Chickens in the
countryside in the UK
They looklook quite happy in their “free-ranging” barns
UK consumes 19 million chickens per week

14. 1day old on the conveyor belt

15. US: 120Kg/year
Meat consumption per person
UK: 80kg/year (levelled off
or declining)
China: 1960- 4Kg/year
(11gm/day)
China: 55Kg/year
Expect twice as much in 50 years time
Whereas the critical amount of meat/person is
40kg/year I.e. about 100gm/day … See why...

17. A word of warning
● This is only the result of organising my notes from this
brilliant documentary produced and directed by
Frederic Lachmann presented with his usual verve by
Michael Mosley.
● I wish I had the name of the farmer at the end
(England's José Bové) who explained that eating
meat correctly produced is fine (85% of what goes in
comes out as useful manure, pigs eat waste etc.)
● What is needed is a revolution in livestock production
(back to nature…. my conclusion)