Does Eating Beef Clash with a Green Lifestyle?

Ahh, beef, that staple of summer barbecues and fast food drive-thrus. Americans consume beef in all seasons, but are there good reasons why we shouldn't? While many environmentalists cite the amount of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, that cattle produce, several other compelling arguments exist why those serious about a greener lifestyle and planet should leave beef out of their diets.

First of all, beef really isn't very good for us. Loaded with saturated fat, antibiotics, and growth hormones, multiple studies have linked beef consumption to diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease, gout, strokes, and arthritis. The National Cancer Institute performed a study that showed that people who ate beef four or more times a week had double the risk of cancer of the stomach. The news gets even worse if you char that beef, such as barbecuing it. Charring beef causes a chemical reaction that produces heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons--big fancy names for chemicals that have been shown to cause cancers of the stomach, pancreas, breast, colon, liver, and mouth. That same NCI study showed triple the stomach cancer risk for people who ate their steaks medium-well to well-done over those who ate rarer steaks.

Beef production creates massive amounts of greenhouse gases. A study done by Japan's National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science studied all aspects of beef production, from calf raising to feed production to animal management costs, and found that producing one kilogram of beef creates releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than leaving all the lights on at home and going for a three hour drive--an amount equal to 36.4kg of carbon dioxide. Keep in mind that this study didn't take into account the carbon dioxide produced during the transportation of beef from ranch to slaughterhouse to distribution. Beef is shipped all around the world, averaging a whopping 20,400 kilometers of travel from farm to plate.

The fertilizing compounds produced during cattle farming also pollute rivers and groundwater, ultimately flowing down to the ocean and contributing to the vast and detrimental changes documented there. Excess fertilizer runoff has contributed to toxic algae blooms that consume oxygen and become dead zones, wrecking ecosystems. Also, the hormones shed by cattle into manure, which then runs off into streams and rivers, has produced gender and fertility changes in native fish and animal species.

According to the Beef Checkoff website, which is funded by the Cattlemen's Beef Board and National Cattlemen's Beef Association, it takes roughly 435 gallons of fresh water to produce one pound of boneless beef. That pound of beef is equal to leaving your shower running for seven hours and fifteen minutes. And what about those antibiotics fed and injected into cattle? The New England Journal of Medicine published research showing a link between the consumption of antibiotic-treated beef and the rise of the antibiotic-resistant "super bugs" like MRSA and VRE.

Another issue to keep in mind is that beef cattle eat an average of twenty pounds of grain every day. How many hungry children and adults could be fed with those twenty pounds of grain? The irony of it all is that grain-fed beef is particularly unhealthy for us. As Jeremy Rifkin says in his book Beyond Beef, "While the rich are dying from the diseases of affluence, the poor of the planet languish for want of the bare essentials of life."

Beef might taste good, but when you take all these factors into consideration, it's undoubtedly one of the least healthy things in your diet--not only for yourself, but for the planet.