California University professor clears the air on livestock GHGs

Frank Mitloehner a professor and air-quality specialist at the University of California, Davis, is working to clarify a cloud of misinformation that continues to fog public perceptions of the role of livestock in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Frank recently published a white paper titled “Livestock’s Contributions to Climate Change: Facts and Fiction,” that shows food animals are minor contributors to US and global GHG emissions.

“One certainly cannot neglect emissions from the livestock sector,” he said, “but to compare them to the main emission sources would put us on a wrong path to solutions, namely to significantly reduce our anthropogenic carbon footprint to reduce climate change.”

Recently news out of Denmark indicated the government there is considering levying a tax on red meat to change eating habits and help reduce GHG emissions. In proposing the tax, the Danish Council of Ethics said cattle accounted for around 10% of the CO2 released into the atmosphere, while food production makes up around another 20%.

In the white paper, Frank notes that the US Environmental Protection Agency and leading scientists have quantified livestock as the source of just 4.2% of all US GHG emissions. To read more, click HERE.