Expect more of this in the months and years ahead: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/07/food.foodanddrink There are a lot of folks looking into the input/output relationships between meat and a number of global resources. As populations grow, world resources are becoming more and more valuable as their use accelerates and their local stockpiles begin to shrink.
Along with water use and energy use, greenhouse gas emissions are being measured with respect to meat production and the one-sided approach that is prevailing is not producing a very favorable picture for meat production and consumption.
The input/output folks are looking at how much water it takes to produce each kind of food (that quarterpounder you had for lunch takes anywhere from 100 to 1,300 gallons depending on who calculates). Others are looking at the energy inputs needed to produce for instance, 1,000 calories of energy to consume as food. That's not a pretty picture either as much more energy goes into food production, processing and distribution than is achieved in metabolizable energy when consumed by humans. If we are to believe the vegetarian guy at the FAO, meat production is a serious contributor to global warming and should be gradually curtailed.
We are seeing more and more of this stuff being eased into the common culture in some interesting ways. Promoting "meatless Monday's" is growing in popularity and now we have food items listing their carbon footprint on the label along with the nutritional information. Look at your next package of Sun Chips to see the format or look here: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2008/04/03/sunchips-solar-coming-out-party/
A quiz for kids at the U.S. geological societies' site (an "unbiased multi-disciplinary science organization") shows how much less water stuff like lettuce uses compared to meat and eggs etc. Take the quiz here: http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/sc1.html
All of this is fine as long as we get beyond the input/output equation and also reveal the benefits of meat production and consumption. The UK Guardian link at the beginning of this piece acknowledges that some areas benefit from cattle production since they benefit from grazing. These approaches leave out the benefits to humans in terms of nutrition, jobs, income, fertilizer nutrients produced etc. etc.
