Sausages, steak, schnitzel – every Austrian eats around 60 kilos of meat a year. And that despite the fact that almost a million people go without meat. How does meat consumption affect the climate?
Are you vegan, flexitarian, meat or omnivore? How often do you treat yourself to a steak and always check the origin of the vegetables? One thing is certain: how we eat influences our carbon footprint. According to Martin Schlatzer, nutrition ecologist at the Research Institute for Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in Vienna, even very much. “Up to 37 percent of all emissions are due to nutrition, 14.5 to 18 percent from animal products,” he explains. For comparison: global traffic makes up around 14 percent, industry 21, energy and heating 25. “Nutrition is the biggest wheel I can turn – for climate protection, health, for biodiversity and long-term food security.” One Beef has a particularly poor carbon footprint, followed by pork and poultry. The methane that cattle belch is 25 to 28 times more climate-active than CO2. However, it only accounts for around 15 percent of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 60 percent) and has a lifespan of eight to 15 years. On the other hand, CO2 works for 100 years. “That’s why you would see the effect very quickly if you reduced methane,” says Schlatzer. Less cattle today than 130 years agoThomas Guggenberger from HBLFA Raumberg-Gumpenstein in Irdning sees it differently. “Methane only accounts for a small part of greenhouse gases. A meadow cattle lives in a cycle. “In 1890 there were more than a million cattle in Austria, today there are 736,000, remembers Guggenberger.Soy and grain, especially for animalsWith pigs and poultry, it is primarily the feed that determines the CO2 consumption drifts up. “They get grain, soy and maize and thus compete with us humans for food. If we were to eat that directly, we could feed three to four billion more people, ”says Schlatzer. Animals eat 85 percent of soy. What role does Austria play in this calculation? Not insignificant, because meat consumption in this country is three times as high as the global average, says Graz climate economist Karl Steininger. Pig tops the popularity charts. Vegans save 70 percent CO2 in their diet, so what to do? According to Martin Schlatzer, those who pay attention to regionality can save five to six percent greenhouse gas emissions. With organic products, 20 percent is possible. “But if you reduce your meat consumption by two thirds – as the Austrian Society for Nutrition recommends – you save 28 percent of your personal greenhouse gas emissions. With a vegetarian diet it is 48 percent, with a vegan diet 70 percent “, calculates Schlatzer.
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