Nyheter - Köttkonsumtionen större hot mot miljön än bilismen
2006-12-07

FAO skriver i ett pressmeddelande på engelska bland annat:

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

Man konstaterar också att köttproduktionen bidrar kraftigt till skogsskövling och ökad påfrestning på färskvattentillgångarna:

"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."

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.

Tyvärr konstaterar rapporten att köttkonsumtionen ökar kraftigt i världen:

"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."

Rapporten Livestock´s Long Shadow - Environmental Issues and Options kan läsas på:
http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/A0701E00.htm

Pressmeddelandet hittas på:
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html

Jens Holm
holmjens@hotmail.com

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