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September 5, 2008 2:07:30 PM CDT

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To Save the Earth, Gobble Chicken

Posted Oct 22, 07 4:06 PM CDT in US,  Science & Health 

(Newser) – When it comes to environmentally friendly eating habits, a vegetarian diet isn't necessarily the answer. PETA would have us believe that meat consumption is the single biggest cause of global warming, but the group is misinformed, Salon says—fossil fuels are to blame. To chow down ethically, steer clear of gas-producing beef and pork products and order chicken.

Livestock—especially cattle—generates methane and nitrous oxide with its burps and manure, and emits 6% of US greenhouse gases. But chickens don't, and they're hyper-efficient protein producers. An industrial chicken may not have the happiest life, but because of gases produced in raising crops, eating one is more energy efficient than following a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet.

Source Salon

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Activists from People for the Ethical treatment of Animals, or PETA, protest in front of a Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, July 19, 2007. When PETA chose to...   (Associated Press)
Objective research indicates that the environmental impact of raising chickens for food is much less detrimental than the beef industry.   (Shutterstock.com)
Free-range chickens.   (Shutterstock.com)
Kevin Lee, owner of the Save More meat store pulls out a tray of steaks in Pacifica, Calif., in this April 13, 2007 file photo. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, file)   (Associated Press)
Dairy is more taxing on the environment than poultry.   (Associated Press)
A chicken stands beside a feeder in a Tyson Foods Inc. poultry house in rural Washington Co., Ark., in this June 19, 2003 file photo. Industrial chickens produce a hefty amount of protein with little...   (Associated Press)
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climate change  • global warming  • greenhouse gases  • PETA  • livestock  • pork  • vegetarianism  • poultry


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