11/30/06 Special JVNA Newsletter - FAO Report

Shalom everyone,

This special Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter considers the recent UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report on the significant contributions that animal-based agriculture has on global climate change and other environmental threats. Please use the information below to help increase awareness of this very important report. Thanks.

The newsletter has the following items:

1. The FAO Report On The Effects of Animal-Based Agriculture on Global Warming and Other Environmental Threats/My Letter/Please Write

2. Humane Society of the U.S. Press Release on the FAO Report

3. Reuters Article Re the FAO Report

4. UN News Center Report on the FAO Report

5. Related Article on a Prediction of a Planetary Catastrophe

[Materials in brackets like this [ ] within an article or forwarded message are my editorial notes/comments.]

Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the JVNA, unless otherwise indicated, but may be presented to increase awareness and/or to encourage respectful dialogue. Also, JVNA does not necessarily agree with all positions of groups whose views are included or whose events are announced in this newsletter.

As always, your comments and suggestions are very welcome.

Thanks,
Richard

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1. The FAO Report On The Effects of Animal-Based Agriculture on Global Warming and Other Environmental Threats/My Letter/Please Write

FAO newsroom
FAO NEWSRELEASE 06/138 E

Livestock a major threat to environment
Remedies urgently needed

Rome, 29 November 2006 - Which causes more greenhouse gas emissions, rearing cattle or driving cars?

Surprise!

According to a new report published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent - 18 percent - than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation.

Says Henning Steinfeld, Chief of FAO's Livestock Information and Policy Branch and senior author of the report: “Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.”

With increased prosperity, people are consuming more meat and dairy products every year. Global meat production is projected to more than double from 229 million tonnes in 1999/2001 to 465 million tonnes in 2050, while milk output is set to climb from 580 to 1043 million tonnes.

Long shadow

The global livestock sector is growing faster than any other agricultural sub-sector. It provides livelihoods to about 1.3 billion people and contributes about 40 percent to global agricultural output. For many poor farmers in developing countries livestock are also a source of renewable energy for draft and an essential source of organic fertilizer for their crops.

But such rapid growth exacts a steep environmental price, according to the FAO report, Livestock's Long Shadow -Environmental Issues and Options. “The environmental costs per unit of livestock production must be cut by one half, just to avoid the level of damage worsening beyond its present level,” it warns.

When emissions from land use and land use change are included, the livestock sector accounts for 9 percent of CO2 deriving from human-related activities, but produces a much larger share of even more harmful greenhouse gases. It generates 65 percent of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2. Most of this comes from manure.

And it accounts for respectively 37 percent of all human-induced methane (23 times as warming as CO2), which is largely produced by the digestive system of ruminants, and 64 percent of ammonia, which contributes significantly to acid rain.

Livestock now use 30 percent of the earth's entire land surface, mostly permanent pasture but also including 33 percent of the global arable land used to producing feed for livestock, the report notes. As forests are cleared to create new pastures, it is a major driver of deforestation, especially in Latin America where, for example, some 70 percent of former forests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing.

Land and water

At the same time herds cause wide-scale land degradation, with about 20 percent of pastures considered as degraded through overgrazing, compaction and erosion. This figure is even higher in the drylands where inappropriate policies and inadequate livestock management contribute to advancing desertification.

The livestock business is among the most damaging sectors to the earth's increasingly scarce water resources, contributing among other things to water pollution, euthropication and the degeneration of coral reefs. The major polluting agents are animal wastes, antibiotics and hormones, chemicals from tanneries, fertilizers and the pesticides used to spray feed crops. Widespread overgrazing disturbs water cycles, reducing replenishment of above and below ground water resources. Significant amounts of water are withdrawn for the production of feed.

Livestock are estimated to be the main inland source of phosphorous and nitrogen contamination of the South China Sea, contributing to biodiversity loss in marine ecosystems.

Meat and dairy animals now account for about 20 percent of all terrestrial animal biomass. Livestock's presence in vast tracts of land and its demand for feed crops also contribute to biodiversity loss; 15 out of 24 important ecosystem services are assessed as in decline, with livestock identified as a culprit.

Remedies

The report, which was produced with the support of the multi-institutional Livestock, Environment and Development (LEAD) Initiative, proposes explicitly to consider these environmental costs and suggests a number of ways of remedying the situation, including:

Land degradation - controlling access and removing obstacles to mobility on common pastures. Use of soil conservation methods and silvopastoralism, together with controlled livestock exclusion from sensitive areas; payment schemes for environmental services in livestock-based land use to help reduce and reverse land degradation.

Atmosphere and climate - increasing the efficiency of livestock production and feed crop agriculture. Improving animals' diets to reduce enteric fermentation and consequent methane emissions, and setting up biogas plant initiatives to recycle manure.

Water - improving the efficiency of irrigation systems. Introducing full-cost pricing for water together with taxes to discourage large-scale livestock concentration close to cities.

[Incredibly, there is no consideration of promoting shifts toward plant-based diets.]

These and related questions are the focus of discussions between FAO and its partners meeting to chart the way forward for livestock production at global consultations in Bangkok this week. These discussions also include the substantial public health risks related to the rapid livestock sector growth as, increasingly, animal diseases also affect humans; rapid livestock sector growth can also lead to the exclusion of smallholders from growing markets.

Online news from FAO: http://www.fao.org/newsroom/
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My Letter/Please write:

November 30, 2006

To Christopher Matthews
christopher.matthews@fao.org

Dear Mr. Matthews,

Kudos to FAO on your eye-opening article on the many negative environmental effects of animal-based agriculture. With over 50 billion farmed animals today, and that number projected to double in about 20 years, I wonder if FAO has any plans to educate people about the many benefits of shifting toward plant-based diets?

Since our world is so threatened today so much by global climate change and many other environmental threats, I hope that you will continue to bring such issues to public attention.

Very truly yours,

Richard H. Schwartz
President, Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) and the Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians (SERV)

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2. Humane Society of the U.S. Press Release on the FAO Report

New United Nations FAO Report: Animal Agribusiness Bigger Polluter than Cars
November 29, 2006

WASHINGTON - The Humane Society of the United States today praised the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization for detailing the widespread and significant environmental problems posed by animal agribusiness in its newly released report, Livestock's Long Shadow -Environmental Issues and Options. The report examines how animal agribusiness is a major contributor to global climate change-generating even more greenhouse gases than cars-and causes massive land and water degradation on a global scale.

In the report, Henning Steinfeld, head of FAO's Livestock Information and Policy Branch and senior author of the report, states, "Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation."

"The HSUS applauds the FAO for addressing the urgent environmental problems posed by animal agribusiness," explained Michael Greger, M.D., director of public health and animal agriculture for The HSUS, the nation's largest animal protection organization. "These industrialized animal factories not only cause serious animal welfare problems, but they also create massive amounts of manure and other potentially hazardous waste products, which degrade the environment and may pose substantial public health risks."

The United States alone raises and kills more than 10 billion land animals each year for meat, dairy, and egg production, most confined on factory farms. The HSUS recommends several steps that animal agribusiness should take to help mitigate some of its environmental problems, including moving away from intensive confinement systems of farm animals and ending the use of unnatural feeds, which can increase methane emissions from animals.

"As a society, we can also help reduce environmental degradation by reducing the total number of animals who we raise and kill for food," Dr. Greger added.

The UN FAO report is available here.

For more information on more humane and environmentally-friendly food, visit www.HumaneEating.com.

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3. Reuters Article Re the FAO Report

FAO report creates a stink over farm animals
By Robin Pomeroy
Nov. 29, 2006

Farm animals are responsible for almost a fifth of the pollution blamed for global warming, a United Nations report said on Wednesday, warning that the livestock sector posed a growing environmental threat.

Gases from manure and flatulence, deforestation to make grazing land and the energy used in farming meant livestock produced 18 percent of the greenhouse gases that trapped heat in the atmosphere, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.

In its report "Livestock's long shadow," the FAO said a projected doubling of global meat production to 465 million tonnes in 2050 and a similar rise in milk output would mean the sector would have to address its effect on climate.

"Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation," said the FAO's Henning Steinfeld, the report's senior author.

Many scientists believe increased emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere are causing global warming, which could lead to catastrophic climate changes.

While producing a relatively small proportion -- about 9 percent -- of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), livestock was responsible for large quantities of other important greenhouse gases, according to the FAO.

Livestock produced 35-40 percent of methane emissions and 65 percent of nitrous oxide which had almost 300 times the global warming potential of CO2, the report said.

Besides the threat to the climate, the growth of livestock farming had added to water pollution and the reduction of forests to make way for grazing. About 70 percent of Amazonian forests had been turned into grazing land, it said.

The FAO said agriculture needed to develop ways of reducing its emissions, including recycling manure into "biogas" fuel, adapting animals' diets and improving land use policies.

Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited.

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4. UN News Center Report on the FAO Report

Rearing cattle produces more greenhouse gases than driving cars, UN report warns
UN NEWS CENTER

29 November 2006 - Cattle-rearing generates more global warming greenhouse gases, as measured in CO2 equivalent, than transportation, and smarter production methods, including improved animal diets to reduce enteric fermentation and consequent methane emissions, are urgently needed, according to a new United Nations report released today.

"Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems," senior UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official Henning Steinfeld said. "Urgent action is required to remedy the situation."

Cattle-rearing is also a major source of land and water degradation, according to the FAO report, Livestock's Long Shadow-Environmental Issues and Options, of which Mr. Steinfeld is the senior author.

"The environmental costs per unit of livestock production must be cut by one half, just to avoid the level of damage worsening beyond its present level," it warns.

When emissions from land use and land use change are included, the livestock sector accounts for 9 per cent of CO2 deriving from human-related activities, but produces a much larger share of even more harmful greenhouse gases. It generates 65 per cent of
human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2. Most of this comes from manure.

And it accounts for respectively 37 per cent of all human-induced methane (23 times as warming as CO2), which is largely produced by the digestive system of ruminants, and 64 per cent of ammonia, which contributes significantly to acid rain.

With increased prosperity, people are consuming more meat and dairy products every year, the report notes. Global meat production is projected to more than double from 229 million tonnes in 1999/2001 to 465 million tonnes in 2050, while milk output is set to climb from 580 to 1043 million tonnes.

The global livestock sector is growing faster than any other agricultural sub-sector. It provides livelihoods to about 1.3 billion people and contributes about 40 per cent to global agricultural output. For many poor farmers in developing countries livestock are also a source of renewable energy for draft and an essential source of
organic fertilizer for their crops.

Livestock now use 30 per cent of the earth's entire land surface, mostly permanent pasture but also including 33 per cent of the global arable land used to producing feed for livestock, the report notes. As forests are cleared to create new pastures, it is a major driver of deforestation, especially in Latin America where, for example, some 70 per cent of former forests in the Amazon have been turned over to
grazing.

At the same time herds cause wide-scale land degradation, with about 20 per cent of pastures considered degraded through overgrazing, compaction and erosion. This figure is even higher in the drylands where inappropriate policies and inadequate livestock management contribute to advancing desertification.

The livestock business is among the most damaging sectors to the earth's increasingly scarce water resources, contributing among other things to water pollution from animal wastes, antibiotics and hormones, chemicals from tanneries, fertilizers and the pesticides used to spray feed crops.

Beyond improving animal diets, proposed remedies to the multiple problems include soil conservation methods together with controlled livestock exclusion from sensitive areas; setting up biogas plant initiatives to recycle manure; improving efficiency of irrigation systems; and introducing full-cost pricing for water together with
taxes to discourage large-scale livestock concentration close to cities.

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5. Related Article on a Prediction of a planetary Catastrophe

Thanks to author and JVNA advisor Lewis Regenstein for forwarding this article. It illustrates why the FAO report is so important and thus why we should use it to promote shifts to plant-based diets.

Gaia Scientist Lovelock Predicts Planetary Wipeout
UK: November 29, 2006

LONDON - The earth has a fever that could boost temperatures by 8 degrees Celsius making large parts of the surface uninhabitable and threatening billions of peoples' lives, a controversial climate scientist said on Tuesday.

James Lovelock, who angered climate scientists with his Gaia theory of a living planet and then alienated environmentalists by backing nuclear power, said a traumatised earth might only be able to support less than a tenth of it's 6 billion people.

"We are not all doomed. An awful lot of people will die, but I don't see the species dying out," he told a news conference. "A hot earth couldn't support much over 500 million."

"Almost all of the systems that have been looked at are in positive feedback ... and soon those effects will be larger than any of the effects of carbon dioxide emissions from industry and so on around the world," he added.

Scientists say that global warming due to carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels for power and transport could boost average temperatures by up to 6C by the end of the century causing floods, famines and violent storms.

But they also say that tough action now to cut carbon emissions could stop atmospheric concentrations of CO2 hitting 450 parts per million - equivalent to a temperature rise of 2C from pre-industrial levels -- and save the planet.

Lovelock said temperature rises of up to 8C were already built in and while efforts to curb it were morally commendable, they were wasted.

"It is a bit like if your kidneys fail you can go on dialysis -- and who would refuse dialysis if death is the alternative. We should think of it in that context," he said.

"But remember that all they are doing is buying us time, no more. The problems go on," he added.

SNIP
Story by Jeremy Lovell

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