To do this, beef and dairy interests have been funding scientists like Frank Mitloehner, who studies air quality at the University of California Davis and asserts that livestock and dairy aren’t big climate problems. “The quintessential Mitloehner take: Worry less about the burgers and more about
Big Oil,” journalist
Jenny Splitter wrote recently in
an in-depth profile of Mitloehner for Undark, which is very much worth reading.
(Mitloehner also partially credits himself for getting the reference to emissions from cows removed from Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal fact sheet).
Industry-favored experts like Mitloehner generally point out that in America, farming is only responsible for
about 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions—and only about
half of that comes from animal agriculture. That’s true, but this is a climate crisis; we don’t really have the option of ignoring one of the main contributors, even if the contributor is not as bad as fossil fuels. Global meat consumption is also
projected to grow rapidly, and it’s very likely that without regulation, emissions are going to grow with it. Right now, one-third of all U.S. animal agriculture emissions come from either livestock methane (farts/burps) or livestock manure management.
www.hsph.harvard.edu
