Sir, – Gareth Smyth (Letters, November 5th) repeats the common fallacy of asking: “Wouldn’t it be better to eat Irish beef than Brazilian?”
This is like asking “wouldn’t it be better to burn the planet with Irish rather than Brazilian matches?”.
The answer is that it would be best not to eat any beef at all. According to research published in the journal, Science, in 2018, avoiding meat and dairy products is the single biggest way that we as individuals can reduce our environmental impact on the planet.
Our World in Data recently reported that beef topped (by a country mile) the table of greenhouse gas emissions per 100g of protein produced, at a whopping 49.89kg.
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The world is burning. It’s best to put away the matches, irrespective of where they are produced.
– Yours, etc,
ROB SADLIER,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.