{"id":2886,"date":"2020-02-10T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/?p=2886"},"modified":"2020-02-10T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-10T08:00:00","slug":"calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Calculating the true costs of cows: How data shows cattle are critical to our diets and the environment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Sarah Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s fair to say cows have found themselves under some negative scrutiny lately. Not a week seems to go by without reports and articles claiming that livestock are bad for the environment, or that we all need to adopt vegan lifestyles to save the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From newspaper headlines to pressure groups,\nthe message seems to be clear: if we want to make headway in the fight against\nclimate change, then livestock products – particularly from cattle – need to\ncome off the menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no doubt that livestock farms, like the\nagricultural industry as a whole, have a part to play in tackling climate\nvolatility. But the current focus on cattle production over-simplifies what is\na very complicated subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Global warming potential<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Much of the argument around livestock farming\nfocuses on the global warming potential (GWP) of meat and dairy thanks to\nanimals\u2019 greenhouse gas production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using GWP mass-based assessments, forage-fed\nbeef cattle create almost 2kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (also known as CO2e,\nthe standard unit for measuring carbon footprints) per 100g of meat produced,\nwhile upland sheep produce 3kg CO2e per 100g of meat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pitted against intensively-reared chicken,\nwhich produce less than 0.5kg CO2e per 100g, and you can quickly see why cattle\nappear to be so much less environmentally-friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what this simple measure fails to grasp is\nthe nuances of agriculture, and what it really means to be sustainable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making sense of the data<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the Sustainable Food Trust\u2019s recent\nconference, sustainable agriculture expert Professor Michael Lee from Bristol\nUniversity talked about the need to consider all of the data connected to farming\nbefore making any conclusions about food\u2019s sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained why the traditional CO2e\nmeasurement fails because it doesn\u2019t take into account meat\u2019s nutritional\nvalue. What\u2019s more, it tells us nothing about which farming systems are the most\neffective at producing nutritious food with the lowest emissions profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Professor Lee, the solution has been to\ncreate a new way to measure GHGs in beef production by incorporating\nRecommended Dietary Intakes (RDIs) into the emissions metric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By using RDIs, the metric recognises beef\u2019s\nhigh nutritional value and concentration of vital vitamins and minerals, such\nas omega-3 fats and vitamin E, compared to foods which, on the surface, have a\nlower carbon footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real value of meat<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In practice, scientists using this metric have\nrevealed that emissions from beef cattle reared on concentrates are actually\nless than 0.05kg CO2e per 1% RDI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a mere fraction of the 2kg CO2e per 100g\ncalculated in the standard GWP measurement, and 1.5-times lower than beef\ncattle raised on forage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even more startling, factoring in nutritious\nvalue showed that emissions from those same cows were 2.25-times lower than\nfree-range chicken. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a sector facing increasing criticism in the\nmainstream media, being able to demonstrate the nutrient value of what we\nproduce as part of a farm\u2019s wider environmental footprint is becoming an\nincreasingly important tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Livestock can play a critical role not only in\nfeeding the world\u2019s growing population, but also in helping to improve soils,\nsequester carbon, and provide long-term environmental benefits which can\u2019t be\nachieved any other way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being able to understand and demonstrate their\nenvironmental footprint will not only help farmers counter some of the negative\npress, but can also help increase efficiencies across farms, meaning that it\u2019s\nnot just an environmental benefit, but a business win too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sarah Jones It\u2019s fair to say cows have found themselves under some negative scrutiny lately. Not a week seems to go by without reports and articles claiming that livestock are bad for the environment, or that we all need to adopt vegan lifestyles to save the world. From newspaper headlines to pressure groups, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":256,"featured_media":1962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"abs_type":[7],"pro_group":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCalculating the true costs of cows: How data shows cattle are critical to our diets and the environment - Promar Italy DEV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Much of the argument around livestock farming focuses on the global warming potential (GWP) of meat and dairy thanks to animals\u2019 greenhouse gas production.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Calculating the true costs of cows: How data shows cattle are critical to our diets and the environment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Much of the argument around livestock farming focuses on the global warming potential (GWP) of meat and dairy thanks to animals\u2019 greenhouse gas production.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Promar Italy DEV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-10T08:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/80\/2019\/11\/RS7517_077A1659-e1589902952124.jpg?w=1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sarah Jones\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sarah Jones\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sarah Jones\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#\/schema\/person\/1cd9d4a7a25c95b58acf99e95ab88847\"},\"headline\":\"Calculating the true costs of cows: How data shows cattle are critical to our diets and the environment\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-10T08:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-10T08:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/\"},\"wordCount\":603,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Environment\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/\",\"name\":\"Calculating the true costs of cows: How data shows cattle are critical to our diets and the environment - Promar Italy DEV\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-10T08:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-10T08:00:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"Much of the argument around livestock farming focuses on the global warming potential (GWP) of meat and dairy thanks to animals\u2019 greenhouse gas production.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Calculating the true costs of cows: How data shows cattle are critical to our diets and the environment\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/\",\"name\":\"Promar Italy DEV\",\"description\":\"Provider of farm and agri food consultant business advice services in UK and worldwide\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Promar Italy DEV\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/80\/2024\/02\/PromarLogo_FINAL_Cropped_v2.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/80\/2024\/02\/PromarLogo_FINAL_Cropped_v2.svg\",\"width\":1064,\"height\":722,\"caption\":\"Promar Italy DEV\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#\/schema\/person\/1cd9d4a7a25c95b58acf99e95ab88847\",\"name\":\"Sarah Jones\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/author\/sarahjones\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Calculating the true costs of cows: How data shows cattle are critical to our diets and the environment - Promar Italy DEV","description":"Much of the argument around livestock farming focuses on the global warming potential (GWP) of meat and dairy thanks to animals\u2019 greenhouse gas production.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Calculating the true costs of cows: How data shows cattle are critical to our diets and the environment","og_description":"Much of the argument around livestock farming focuses on the global warming potential (GWP) of meat and dairy thanks to animals\u2019 greenhouse gas production.","og_url":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/","og_site_name":"Promar Italy DEV","article_published_time":"2020-02-10T08:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/80\/2019\/11\/RS7517_077A1659-e1589902952124.jpg?w=1024","width":"1024","height":"1024","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sarah Jones","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sarah Jones","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/"},"author":{"name":"Sarah Jones","@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#\/schema\/person\/1cd9d4a7a25c95b58acf99e95ab88847"},"headline":"Calculating the true costs of cows: How data shows cattle are critical to our diets and the environment","datePublished":"2020-02-10T08:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-10T08:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/"},"wordCount":603,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Environment"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/","url":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/","name":"Calculating the true costs of cows: How data shows cattle are critical to our diets and the environment - Promar Italy DEV","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-02-10T08:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-10T08:00:00+00:00","description":"Much of the argument around livestock farming focuses on the global warming potential (GWP) of meat and dairy thanks to animals\u2019 greenhouse gas production.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/calculating-the-true-costs-of-cows-how-data-shows-cattle-are-critical-to-our-diets-and-the-environment\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Calculating the true costs of cows: How data shows cattle are critical to our diets and the environment"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/","name":"Promar Italy DEV","description":"Provider of farm and agri food consultant business advice services in UK and worldwide","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#organization","name":"Promar Italy DEV","url":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/80\/2024\/02\/PromarLogo_FINAL_Cropped_v2.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/80\/2024\/02\/PromarLogo_FINAL_Cropped_v2.svg","width":1064,"height":722,"caption":"Promar Italy DEV"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#\/schema\/person\/1cd9d4a7a25c95b58acf99e95ab88847","name":"Sarah Jones","url":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/author\/sarahjones\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/80\/2019\/11\/RS7517_077A1659-e1589902952124.jpg?fit=%2C","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/256"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2886"},{"taxonomy":"abs_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/abs_type?post=2886"},{"taxonomy":"pro_group","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pro_group?post=2886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}