In my search for a healthy diet to adhere to, I have adopted a mostly vegetarian diet.  Some of the issues with the consumption of beef and dairy products versus the benefits of a plant based diet are outlined by the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine.  Dairy products and foods high in saturated fats lead to inflammation, the cause of  many adverse health conditions.  I had severe childhood asthma and drinking milk made it hard for me to breathe.  Scientists have proven that a  plant based diet can help prevent  conditions like asthma and with plant based milk I don't have a breathing problem. 

Much of the grain that we grow to feed the livestock we consume is drenched in pesticides such as glyphosate, a known carcinogen which is then passed on to us through our diet.  Raising animal feed crops also uses 80% of the land in our country and nearly half of our water, squeezing out native wildlife and creating water shortages.  By reducing the meat we consume and substituting organic produce we can ease pressure on the climate, land, water and wildlife.  While animal agriculture generates about $35 billion more in profit than plant farming, the expenses of animal agriculture are also about $55.8 billion more.  Research concludes that “plant-based agriculture grows 512% more pounds of food than animal-based agriculture on 69% of the land.  According to research by the University of Michigan and Tulane University and supported by the Center For Biological Diversity, it was found that replacing half of all animal based foods with organic plant based alternatives, would result in a reduction of 1.6 billion tons of climate pollution over the next 10 years. 

Now that we are enjoying barbecuing on the home grill in this summer season,  maybe by putting more plants and less meat on the grill, we can improve our health, reduce our carbon footprint and help save our wildlife

Getting our climate warming problem under control is essential to the future wellbeing of our planet. I love reading about innovative ways that we can work within our natural world to do that.  

Cattle are the no. 1 agricultural source of greenhouse gases worldwide.  When cattle eat they produce vast amounts of methane with their digestive processing.  Each year a single cow will belch about 220 pounds of methane, which is shorter lived than carbon dioxide but 28 times more toxic in warming our atmosphere. Two cows emit as much greenhouse gas as a 25 mpg car will emit when driven 10,000 miles.  

Scientists and universities are studying the situation around the world.  Better breeding, genetics and quality nuitrition have increased the efficiency of livestock today; we are now feeding and supplying milk to more people with fewer cattle.  But those that we are raising continue to belch air polluting methane.

Dairy cattle farmers and cattle ranchers are now joining forces with ocean seaweed farmers to fight climate crisis by cultivating a red seaweed supplement for cattle feed.  This additive produces up to a 60 percent reduction in cattle methane emission with just 1 percent of the seaweed in cattle feed.  The cattle like it and the cow's milk tastes good with the added algae.  It could be a relatively simple solution for reducing emissions.

There is one problem however; producing enough seaweed additive.  It can be produced in bioreactors, but producing it in quantities enough for all cattle everywhere is a challenge that scientists are working on. Feeding 100,000 head of dairy or beef cattle a small bit of this seaweed would be the equivalent of taking 50,000 cars off the road.

Another criticism of cattle raising is that it takes up so much land (nearly half of the land in the United States). Overgrazing those lands can degrade soil health and add to climate warming.  On the other hand,  proper cattle grazing can help mitigate climate change.  Environmentally conscious farmers are now maintaining a diversity of native grasses and rotating their herds between pastures to give the cattle plenty to eat but not allowing them to overgraze. This leaves as much grass as possible to allow water infiltration and develop a healthy root system for the grasses.  The longer and denser the roots, the more they can hold atmospheric carbon in the soil.  While sustainable grazing practices won't completely eliminate methane produced by the cows, they can offset it.  According to climate scientists, this solution could sequester 16 gigaton of carbon dioxide by 2050.  This is just one example of how we can work together to maintain a healthy planet.