cattle

Part II of a two-part series on the USDA farm census

The latest U.S. Department of Agriculture farm census reveals two patterns of development in the agricultural sector. One is the praiseworthy increase in the number of small farms that we discussed in Part I. The other is a pernicious increase in the number of big farms.

The census showed that about 6 percent of the nation's farms produce 70 percent of its food. From a different angle, farms with more than $1 million in sales produced 59 percent of the nation’s food in 2007, up from 47 percent in 2002.

So despite the countervailing trend of small farms, our food production system is still a concentrated, industrial food production system. And that means an emission-spewing food production system.

Here’s why:

Late last month, Andreas Troge, the head of Germany's federal environmental agency, made a bold statement: He told people to stop eating so much meat—not on behalf of their cholesterol count, but on behalf of the planet.

Troge suggested in an interview with Germany’s Berliner Zeitung that Germans should stick with the "European tradition of the 'Sunday roast'" and reorient their consumption patterns to imitate those of Mediterranean countries—"more fish and vegetables"—to reduce their contribution to global warming.

The suggestion was stunning coming from a high government official, particularly in a country with a meat-heavy diet.

Eating less beef has long been fashionable among food cognoscenti, but now it's going to be in vogue for another reason – beef production is a massive driver of global warming through greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In the two weeks since Troge spoke up, officials in Australia and Cincinnati, Ohio, have been emboldened to publicly discuss the need for planet-conscious diets with less meat.