Source: Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE, 12/7/11

The American Meat Institute, in conjunction with the American Meat Science Association, has launched the fourth installment of seven new myth-crushing videos. This one aims to set the record straight about myths associated with the environmental impact of meat production.

The video, featuring Judith Capper, associate professor, department of animal sciences, Washington State University, points to an oft cited-quote from a 2006 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) study claiming: “Livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouses gases, a bigger share than transport.”

This error went largely unchallenged for several years until Frank Mitloehner at the University of California - Davis examined the FAO claim and discovered the calculation was based on an unequal application of lifecycle assessments. The livestock sector’s true contribution to GHG emissions is around 3 percent, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“Beef has made an incredible contribution over the last 30 years,” Capper notes. “Advances in management, nutrition, genetics, health welfare, all of these things have made our farms more productive, more efficient. … We’ve cut the total carbon footprint per pound of beef by 18 percent.”

Capper’s video, available at http://bit.ly/tHP7oa is the fourth of seven to be released on http://www.meatmythcrushers.com/ during the next several weeks.