Cornell Study Assesses "Food Print" Related to Consumption, Diets
They equated their findings out to the fact that if everyone in New York State were to follow a low-fat vegetarian diet, the farm land in the state could support close to 50% more people than it can now, which amounts to about 32% of the current population of the state. With the high meat diet that most people follow today, the state is able to feed 22% of the population without having to get food from the other states.
The researchers compared a total of 42 diets that all contained the same amount of calories. They also had the same core products of grains, fruits, vegetables and dairy products, all of which can be grown and produced in New York State. The only variables in the diets were the amount of meat and fats. The meat ranged from none to 13.4 ounces a day and fat which ranged 20 to 45% of the total daily calorie count. They then designed an agricultural land footprint for each diet.
There was five times the difference between the diets that came in on the opposite ends of the scale.
Someone who follows the low fat vegetarian diet needs less that a half acre of land per person per year top produce all the food they need. The one on the opposite end of the scale is the high fat, high meat, diet and in this case, each person needs 2.11 acres to produce their food.
But a diet that adds just a little bit of meat is still more efficient than the vegetarian one because of the type of land it uses, not only the acreage.
Fruits, veggies and grains need high quality crop land to grow, Meat and dairy products come from animals that can be supported on lower quality land which is also more available than the high quality land. In other words, although a vegetarian diet uses less land overall, it uses more high quality land than a diet with just a bit of meat added, making the meat added diet more efficient when all the variables are considered.
Figures compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2005 showed that Americans ate about 5.8 ounces of meat and eggs a day. The current research shows that in order to get the maximum use out of the land, New Yorkers need to limit their daily intake of meat and eggs to about 2 ounces after cooking.
The lead author of the study is Chris Peters, M.S. '02, Ph.D. '07, a Cornell postdoctoral associate in crop and soil sciences
The research was funded in part by the National Research Initiative of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service.
Source. Cornell University http://www.news.cornell.edu/
Published by Regina Sass
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6 Comments
Post a CommentPersonally, I just do not want to eat animals. I just admire them to much. When I became a vegetarian I lost 50lbs and I feel better than ever and being the main person who cooks in our household, I do not miss the mess of cooking animals. But I feel strongly that how we eat is a personal decision and we each must do what we feel is right for our bodies because everyone is different.
Personally, I just do not want to eat animals. I just admire them to much. When I became a vegetarian I lost 50lbs and I feel better than ever and being the main person who cooks in our household, I do not miss the mess of cooking animals. But I feel strongly that how we eat is a personal decision and we each must do what we feel is right for our bodies because everyone is different.
Yes, ideally a small amount of meat per day would use less land. But many people here are right- most animals nowadays aren't grazed. The best way to produce "free range" meat is by hunting- if people would hunt their own meat, it would assure that less meat is consumed (because they'd have to work hard to get it), that the animal lived a natural life, and that it is artificial hormone and antibiotic free.
Of course, growing your own vegetable garden is a great way to be self-sustainable, but it's not very feasible in New York.
Tricia is right-- animals are not grazed on marginal lands. In fact, most are not grazed at all, but rather fed grains.
I wonder if these researchers considered this at all? I also wonder if they considered the fact that the majority of farmlands are devoted to the growing of grains exclusively for animal feeds?
Most people who eat meat don't eat small amounts; they eat large amounts.
Also, a UN study determined that animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gases than all forms of transportation combined.
Finally, most meat today is produced on factory farms, notoriously environmentally unfriendly, not by animals grazing on marginal lands.
This is very interesting. Thanks for writing.