This Meat Could Help the Planet!

Researchers around the world have spent years trying to create the perfect burger. It should have just the right flavor, juiciness, and color. It needs to sizzle when it hits a hot grill. It should make your mouth water.

But these experts are not trying to make a burger from beef. They are not even trying to make one from potatoes, beets, and other plants like those now sold at Burger King and TGI Fridays. Instead, they are working to produce a patty made entirely from animal cells in a lab. And researchers hope it will help save the planet.

How? It may surprise you, but beef has a huge effect on the environment. It has a much greater effect than chicken, fish, or vegetables. That is because raising cattle requires a huge amount of land, water, and other resources. Millions of acres of forests have been cleared to grow food for the animals to eat.

And perhaps most damaging of all, cows release greenhouse gases as part of their digestion process. Those gases include methane and carbon dioxide. When they collect in the atmosphere, they trap the sun’s heat close to Earth’s surface. That contributes to climate change.

According to the United Nations, nearly 15 percent of all greenhouse gases released worldwide each year can be attributed to livestock, mostly cows. That is roughly the same as what is produced by all cars, trucks, airplanes, and ships combined.

In recent decades, worldwide beef production has skyrocketed. It has gone from 62 billion pounds in 1961 to 150 billion pounds today. That is partly because the global population is rising. Plus, higher incomes in countries such as China mean more people can now afford to buy meat. In the United States, the average American eats a whopping 58 pounds of beef each year. (That is equal to about 230 burgers!)

This rising global demand is contributing to humans’ disastrous impact on the environment. And scientists warn that it could get a lot worse. They say we must take drastic action to address climate change. They say if we do not, then droughts, heat waves, floods, and other extreme weather events are likely to become more frequent and severe. Tens of millions of people globally could be forced to flee their homes as a result.

“That’s why it’s really important that we act immediately,” says Gidon Eshel. He is an environmental scientist at Bard College in New York. “One way we can help is by changing our diets, particularly by eating less beef.”

Why do cows have such a big impact on the environment? Believe it or not, experts say it mainly has to do with, well, their burps.

As cows eat, their stomachs produce bacteria that help them break down grasses and other plants. In the process, those bacteria create methane. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. Cattle then release that built-up methane into the atmosphere. They release it by burping it out silently through their noses. And, to a lesser extent, they release it by farting. (Yes, seriously.)

In fact, a single cow can burp up to 132 gallons of methane per day. Multiply that by the more than 1.4 billion cattle currently being raised for food worldwide. That adds up to a lot of methane. (Even their manure releases the greenhouse gas!)

Cows are not the only animals that digest food this way. Sheep, goats, camels, and a few others do too. But they do not release nearly as much methane as cattle. In total, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that cows and other animals with similar digestion processes account for 27 percent of total methane emissions in the U.S. That is second only to the oil and gas industry.

But gassy burps are just one part of the problem with beef production. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, the beef industry takes up nearly 60 percent of Earth’s total agricultural land. That is about 12 million square miles—an area as big as the entire continent of Africa.

In some countries, particularly in Latin America, millions of acres of rainforest have been cleared in recent decades. The land has been cleared to grow corn, soy, and other food for livestock. It also has been cleared to make room for the animals to graze. But trees help combat climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide. When forests are changed into farmland, the carbon dioxide they have absorbed is released back into the atmosphere. And fewer trees are left to help absorb greenhouse gases.

In addition, producing fertilizer and using it to grow food for cattle releases greenhouse gases. Fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, are also used to operate farm equipment, process meat, and ship beef all over the world.

The good news, however, is that researchers are working on ways to decrease beef’s impact on the environment. One potential solution is for people to replace the beef burgers in their diets with the plant-based varieties that are now sold in many grocery stores and restaurants. 

Such alternatives don’t contain any meat at all and are far better for the environment. One study found that creating a Beyond Burger—made from peas, coconut oil, and more than a dozen other ingredients—produces 90 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than making a beef burger. 

But the good news is that researchers are working on ways to decrease beef’s impact on the environment. One possible solution is for people to replace the beefburgers in their diets with the plant-based kinds that are now sold in many grocery stores and restaurants.

Such alternatives do not contain any meat at all. And they are far better for the environment. For example, a Beyond Burger is made from peas, coconut oil, and more than a dozen other ingredients. One study found that creating a Beyond Burger produces 90 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than making a beef burger.

Some researchers are aiming for something a bit more extreme. They want to replace beefburgers with synthetic meat grown in a lab. How does this work? Scientists use cow muscle cells to grow strands of “meat.” Those strands are then combined to form patties. The first lab-produced synthetic burger was created by a company in the Netherlands in 2013. It cost $325,000 to make and took nine weeks to grow.

Since then, businesses worldwide have invested billions of dollars to produce lab-created burgers that are less expensive and taste better. Some experts predict that the market for plant-based and other alternative meat products could be worth up to $85 billion by 2030.

In the meantime, researchers are experimenting with new types of cattle feed to make cows less gassy. That would make them less harmful to the planet. Others have strapped backpacks on cows to try to capture their methane-filled burps and farts before they are released into the atmosphere.

Plus, farmers and ranchers have been working for years to make beef production more efficient. In fact, even though the number of cattle in the U.S. has decreased by one-third since 1975, the country produces more beef today than it did back then.

In addition, Germany, Denmark, and a few other nations are debating adding specific taxes on beef. Lawmakers hope that if meat costs more, fewer people will buy it.

But the easiest, fastest, and most effective solution, experts say, is for everyone to simply eat less beef. Research shows that cutting out just one burger per week would prevent as much greenhouse gas pollution as taking a car off the road for 350 miles. 

Many Americans, especially kids and teens, have gone even further, switching to vegetarian or vegan diets. (A vegetarian doesn’t eat meat, while a vegan avoids all animal products, including dairy and eggs.) Experts say Americans could shrink their food-related climate impact by at least one-third by moving to a vegetarian diet. 

That’s partly why 18-year-old Nadia Nazar, one of the founders of the climate action group Zero Hour, became a vegetarian in middle school. She urges other kids to do the same. “I’m proud that I’m not contributing to the effect that meat has on the climate,” she says.

But experts say that the easiest, fastest, and most effective solution is for everyone to simply eat less beef. Research shows that cutting out just one burger per week would prevent as much greenhouse gas pollution as taking a car off the road for 350 miles.

Many Americans, especially kids and teens, have gone even further. They have switched to vegetarian or vegan diets. (A vegetarian does not eat meat, while a vegan avoids all animal products, including dairy and eggs.) Experts say Americans could shrink their food-related climate impact by at least one-third by moving to a vegetarian diet.

That is partly why 18-year-old Nadia Nazar became a vegetarian in middle school. Nadia is one of the founders of the climate action group Zero Hour. She urges other kids to become vegetarians too. “I’m proud that I’m not contributing to the effect that meat has on the climate,” she says.

Of course, many experts point out that beef is not completely bad. For one thing, the meat industry employs hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. alone. And scientists say that beef can be part of a healthy diet when eaten in moderation.

But just cutting back can have a major impact on the planet. That is partly why some families and schools are adopting “Meatless Mondays.” On those days, they serve only plant-based meals, like veggie tacos. Reducing food waste would help too, experts say. Americans throw away 23 percent of the meat they buy each year. That comes to 7.2 billion pounds.

If people all over the world were to do their part, these small changes could go a long way toward helping the environment. After all, not everyone can bike to school instead of riding in a car. Not everyone can put solar panels on their homes to sustainably generate power. “But,” says Eshel, “everyone can eat less beef.”