I recently visited a lecture by Marianne Thieme from the Party for the Animals in Wilp (Netherlands). It was wonderful to hear someone speak passionately about climate and environment, in my opinion. She had a well-constructed story. I was even surprised by her moderate tone. I did, however, expect more from her statements on the climate effects of meat and milk.
The CO2 eq emission of a liter of milk in the Netherlands is 1.2 kg on average. This is twice as high worldwide. So we are not doing too bad in the Netherlands. I do struggle with Thieme’s call to reduce the production of Dutch agriculture by 70%. The Dutch population continues to grow and needs to be fed. It is a bad thing for the climate if our food production is taken over by other countries. If you reduce current food production by 70%, you will have to import more, which will actually increase climate damage. What does help is to reduce CO2 emissions in agriculture. By fermenting fresh manure on the farm, we can reduce those emissions by approximately 25%. That is why CCS is committed to this.
Naturally, it also helps to consume less dairy products and meat. Thieme has a point there, looking from a climate perspective. The production of beef in particular is very damaging to our climate. On the basis of various data it follows that beef produces 5 to 10 times more CO2 eq emission compared to pork and that chicken meat even halves the emissions compared to pork. It is difficult to find reliable data, since this varies greatly per country, but the general trend is clear. If you still want to eat meat, from a climate perspective, chicken is by far preferable to beef. In the case that cattle are raised exclusively for meat, it has an emission that is 10 times higher than for pork. With Dutch beef from calf breeding farms and dairy cows, the emission is 2 to 4 times higher, respectively. Again, it is better for the climate that when you eat beef, it should be Dutch beef.
Too bad this part was missing in the presentation Marianne Thieme gave. Climate and agriculture are important topics, but less Dutch agriculture can sometimes lead to more greenhouse gases, which begs the question whether if with this solution we are not ‘putting the cart before the horse’.
About this article
26 March 2019 / Author: Dr. Ir. René Cornelissen
