From: young@serum.kodak.com
Subject: Re: Rainforests and McDonalds
Originator: young@sasquatch
Reply-To: young@serum.kodak.com
Organization: Clinical Products Division, Eastman Kodak Company
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 92 16:28:50 GMT

In article <altar.714065149@sfu.ca> altar@beaufort.sfu.ca (Ted Wayn Altar) writes:

[...]

>Let us grant the validity of your very rough calculations and
>the applicability of its assumptions (a direct measure instead of
>an inferred calculation would have been better).
>
>Now, we should not forget that even APPARENTLY SMALL impacts can
>have big and grave consequences, especially when we consider
>the AGGREGATE result of those impacts over TIME.  Consider
>the following statement by Jeremy Rifkin in "BEYOND BEEF,
>1992": [omitted are Rifkin's original sources that do substantiate his claims]

[...]

The following was printed in the latest issue of the TUFTS UNIVERSITY DIET AND
NUTRITION LETTER, Vol. 10, No. 4, June 1992:

	[...]

	BEEF EATING'S INFLUENCE ON THE ENVIRONMENT

	Beef's effect on health is actually not Rifkin's biggest gripe.
	It's that beef production is "one of the most destructive envir-
	onmental threats of the modern era."  Particularly chilling is
	his description of the ecological ruin that clearing rain forest
	for grazing land has caused in Central ans South America.

	Each of us bears some measure of responsibility, Rifkin scolds his
	readers, because the production of a single quarter-pound hamburger
	from a steer raised in Central or South America involves the eradi-
	cation of about 165 pounds of living matter that come from 20 to 30
	different plant species, perhaps 100 insect species, and dozens of
	bird, mammal, and reptile species.

	Certainly, the destruction of irreplaceable natural resources for
	whatever reason is deplorable, and the U.S. bears a share of the
	responsibility for deforesting nations with fewer natural and
	economic resources than our own.  But contrary to the impression
	Rifkin creates, some experts believe that the worst of the plunder
	is over and that the American taste for beef has little impact
	today on what happens in the tropical rain forests.  Less than one
	percent of the beef Americans eat is imported from Central and
	South America, according to the United States Department of
	Agriculture, and even that small amount is steadily declining.

	As for the impact of cattle production on global warming, steer
	do exhale methane gas, which rises to the atmosphere where it
	traps heat escaping the earth, and thus help to create the "green-
	house" effect."  But cattle are not the only culprit.  Coal mining,
	oil and gas drilling, the incomplete combustion of fossil fuel,
	the burning of vegetation, and our wetlands all produce large
	amounts of methane.  Rice paddies and termites alone produce almost
	twice as much methane as cattle.

	[...]

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Rich Young                             | Phone: (716) 253-7176
Eastman Kodak Company                  | FAX: (716) 253-7254
Clinical Products Division             | Internet: young@serum.kodak.com
100 Carlson Road                       |
Rochester, New York, USA   14653-9122  |
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