Cattle farming threat to climate change- expert
Written by Millennium on March 30, 2019
BUUMBA CHIMBULU writes
GOVERNEMNT should assess its approach towards beef production in Zambia as it has severe effects on the climate change, says the Civil Society Scaling-up Nutrition Alliance (CSSNA) country coordinator Matthews Mhuru.
Mr Mhuru said that was because cattle farming were eight times worse than greenhouse gasses which caused global warming.
In a statement Mr Mhuru said that the findings from research conducted in 2017 revealed that the escalation of animal production manifested by the increasing beef production in the region was dangerous for climate change.
This is according to a 2017 study which was conducted by the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) on food consumption in the United States of America.
Mr Mhuru explained that beef production was a threat to climate change as methane that was produced through the process and cattle farming were eight times worse than Green House Gasses which caused global warming.
“Zambia will therefore need to look into diets on a long term basis to ensure that it moves towards consuming less beef and invest more on meet protein from small animals like chicken which are cheaper and available to small holder farmers. This will help minimize the effects beef production has on the environment.
“To this effect, it will be important that as government responds to food and nutrition security, it considers the climate change aspect which has devastating effects not only on the environment but human health as well,” he said.
