Livestock in the Food Debate - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 518

as commodities for slaughter, it is also unethical to deprive farming systems and their
inhabitants of subsistence opportunities. We may end up with a stratified ethical con-
clusion: an ethic for the rich, who can afford better treatment of and reduction in con-
sumption of animal protein, and an ethic for the poor, who have radically fewer and
worse options.
Notes
1. Calculated from FAO food balance sheets: http://www.fao.org/economic/ess/ess-fs/bs/en/
2. Calculations based on FAO food balance sheets: http://www.fao.org/economic/ess/ess-fs/
bs/en/
3. Equivalent CO2 emissions, a measure that incorporates any other greenhouse gases pro-
duced alongside the CO) taking into account land use change (important) and fossil fuel
use (less important).
4. Methane is produced in the guts of ruminant livestock because of methanogen bacteria
and protozoa. The composition of the animal feed is a crucial factor in controlling the
amounts of methane produced, but a sheep can produce about 30 liters of methane each
day and a dairy cow up to 200.
5. Existing estimates of water used to produce forages vary from 01. to 03 Kg of forage per m3.
of water. There is still a need to systematic evaluating water productivity of exiting forage
and an animal feed.
6. Our diets account for up to twice as many greenhouse emissions as driving a vehicle con-
suming 9 liters per 100 kilometers for 19,000 km—a typical year's mileage.
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