There are many areas one needs to take in to account, you are only taking in to account the difference between moving cows between fields (less trees cut down and energy spent growing corn etc.) and not taking all aspects that should be considered (such as trees being cut down for more grass grazing cows). We have struggled being vegans (failed), struggled being vegetarians (failed) and now flexitarian's (success).....it is blatantly obviously having 2 billion+ cows, and that number is growing each year, on earth to serve humans is not a good thing...period. I don't want to see farmers go out of business, but the human race does need to eat a hell of a lot less, not no, animal protein (go read the
China Study). On a side note my father/mother have been vegans for a few years now....they are in the best shape of their lives, my fathers cholesterol is that of a healthy young man and he's out running 10km's+ per day....he's 74! The difference in their health is without a doubt obvious and there is absolutely no disputing the reason why.
@ShockOnT then there is this (
Are cows the cause of global warming? | Time for change):
A cow does on overage release between 70 and 120 kg of Methane per year. Methane is a greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide (CO2). But the negative effect on the climate of Methane is 23 times higher than the effect of CO2. Therefore the release of about 100 kg Methane per year for each cow is equivalent to about 2'300 kg CO2 per year.
Let's compare this value of 2,300 kg CO2: The same amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) is generated by burning 1,000 litres of petrol. With a car using 8 litres of petrol per 100 km, you could drive 12,500 km per year.
World-wide, there are about 1.5 billion cows and bulls. All ruminants (animals which regurgitates food and re-chews it) on the world emit about two billion metric tons of CO2-equivalents per year. In addition, clearing of tropical forests and rain forests to get more grazing land and farm land is responsible for an extra 2.8 billion metric tons of CO2 emission per year!
According to the
Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO)
agriculture is responsible for 18% of the total release of greenhouse gases world-wide (this is more than the whole transportation sector).
Cattle-breeding is taking a major factor for these greenhouse gas emissions according to FAO. 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."
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.
The following tables indicates the CO2 production in kg CO2 equivalents per kg of meat depending on the animal:
1 kg of meat from produces kg CO2e:
- beef 34.6
- lamb 17.4
- pork 6.35
- chicken 4.57
Albert Einstein (Nobel prize 1921): Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.
