An article in the Sydney Morning Herald questioned the morality of eating meat in the context of climate change, citing not only Australian Vegetarian Society Director Mark Berriman, but also Nobel laureate Rajendra Pachauri, the chief of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

While many of the stats quoted in this and similar articles might be a bit unfair on the average Kiwi omnivore, given New Zealand’s pastoral-based farming systems are less energy intensive than those common in the US and elsewhere, it seems pretty intuitive that (in the same way heating your water with gas is more efficient than using that gas to generate electricity to heat your water) eating plants is more efficient than feeding those plants to animals and eating the animals.

For more on how your food choices can affect the environment, take a look at the website Cool Cuisine, and for an excellent compilation of studies on the link between meat eating and global warming, it’s hard to go past Green Muze - Ten Studies on Meat & Global Warming.

And just think of what substituting porridge (without milk or cream, of course) for bacon could do for your cholesterol levels!