According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, human diets consisting of  meat consumption cause more greenhouse gasses to spill into the atmosphere than both industrial and transportation contributions. The hidden environmental costs of food production are entwined in a dangerous and wasteful web of energy consumption. We are looking at a large build up of atmospheric greenhouse gases paired with heavy environmental costs due to transportation, refrigeration and fuel for farming, as well as methane emissions from plants and animals.

We enter into the meat industry and the amount of methane being emitted is disastrous. Cows emit between 2.5 and 4.7 ounces of methane for each pound of beef they produce. The global warming potential of methane increases 23 times and is equivalent to 6.8 pounds of CO2 per each pound of beef produced. Furthermore, the economically efficient CAFO (http://www.sierraclub.org/factoryfarms/) system is not the cleanest production method but FAO implies that the world average emissions from producing a pound of beef are several times the CAFO amount.

Solutions?

It is important to give careful thought to diet and the consequences for the planet if limiting the emissions of greenhouse gases is to be a realistic goal.

According to the governments top energy forecasting agency the United States will be well below the biofuel mandate regarding the uncertain development of fuels made from grass and wood. The main risk at play is the development of cellulosic biofuels technology says the Energy Information’s Administration head. The worlds largest producer of ethanol, the United States will only transform about 30 billion gallons of ethanol fuels into gasoline by 2022; falling short 17 percent of the U.S. mandate.

A spokesman for the ethanol industry group, Renewable Fuels Association, said that the research in cellulosic production can actually help the United States meet the standards of this mandate. The former Governor of Iowa, the countries largest ethanol producer, and the President-elect’s choice for agriculture secretary, recommends phasing out subsides for corn-based ethanol and reducing tariffs on Brazil’s sugar cane ethanol.

Taking in consideration that four barrels of oil are consumed for every one barrel found, the ambition towards the ethanol world is unquestionable. The current ethanol limitation in gasoline is ten percent, while any special cars, flex-fuel cars, can contain almost 90 percent ethanol. The ethanol capacity in the United States is too high so distillation is not very profitable. The nations capacity to make ethanol is slightly more than this years mandate for to introduce 11 billion gallons of biofuel to gasoline.