There has been a hot debate raging for the last few years on how important the livestock industry is to the battle against CO2 emissions. Various studies seem to prove that the meat industry is a major factor in gas emission pollution. One report concluded that up to 18% of emissions come from the Dairy industry (Livestock's Long Shadow, 2006). As for cattle raised for human consumption, another study states that meat consumption is one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions that are heating up the earth (“Meat the Truth”, 2008). This includes clearing the land for food sources for the cattle, fertilisers, producing, raising, processing, and then transportation to market. It is also estimated that British meat consumption is over double the world average. So, what can we do?

Suggestions in several studies say that if each Brit ate just vegetables for one day each week, those statistics would be considerably lower. Of course, at the other end of the debate is the idea of giving up meat entirely, to save our earth. Still, some foresee there will always be meat-eaters, so another option is to support the cutting edge ‘cultured meat' pioneer venture. Cultured meat is meat that is grown using tissue engineering techniques. This is already being done in laboratories, and the effect on the environment would be startling positive: 96% less emissions than raising beef, 45% less energy needed, whilst land and water use would be lowered by 99%.