Meat is murdering the planet through massive carbon emissions

Carnivore's footprint

The EU is subsidising inefficient farming. But it's not entirely to blame for the needless mass transport of products.

The meat industry creates even more carbon emissions than IT, according Friends of the Earth. But IT could help solve the problem, says a report.

EU subsidies, which artificially make some farm produce cheaper than in other parts of Europe, are to blame. The resulting transport of meat products across Europe creates a massive carbon footprint. FoE has called on the IT industry to help device a technical solution to the problem.

FoE said the government must do more to ensure that the meat industry reduces its carbon footprint and that people should be made more aware of environmentally-friendly farming.

"In total, the meat and dairy industry is responsible for more carbon dioxide emissions than all of the world's transport put together," a representative said.

"So we are really concerned about that and we want governments to look at the ways in which supermarkets use their buying power to use meat that has been intensively reared in order to make enough money so that's totally something that we are concerned about."

The comments come after the publication of a report from Greenpeace, which suggested that the Amazon is being destroyed by British supermarkets buying meat from Brazilian cattle ranchers, who are cutting down trees in the rainforest.

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