Articles
Should we give up the car or our steak?
The Netherlands has the densest livestock population in Europe. The immense environmental impact of this was already made clear by the statistics on manure production: 70 billion per year, or 4000 kg per Dutchman. What is far less well known is the environmental impact of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the livestock industry. According to calculations from the Centre for Agriculture and Environment (CLM), a cow annually produces just as many greenhouse gas emissions as 4.5 cars, or driving 70.000 kilometres. This is why the Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation, in collaboration with the Free University Amsterdam, conducted research to explore the relationship between meat consumption and the emission of greenhouse gasses. The results of this research were today presented in the documentary Meat the Truth. Following An Inconvenient Truth many Dutch...
Dairy Farmers’ Union should use their commonsense
The Dairy Farmers’ Union should use their commonsense. The documentary Meat the Truth has hit the Dutch Dairy Farmers’ Union (NMV) hard, and that is quite understandable. The film reveals the contribution of livestock farming to the climate problem and that contribution is considerable. The sector will have to take major steps to reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses. That is a hard truth for a sector to face, which has increasingly had to produce its wares at cost price. What is less understandable is that an organisation representing the sector has tried to defend itself using fundamentally flawed arguments. That is neither in the interest of dairy farming nor the reputation of the agricultural sector. It can even damage the societal debate about the future of livestock production. The Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation has worked for a year to bring...