Because we are so happy living in our peaceful haven behind dear Suza’s house in this beautiful valley, we are very concerned about the problem of global warming. We think the temperature is just right as it is, and we know the many terrible problems that will occur if the planet heats up just a few degrees. And so we were happy to hear about the careful and thoughtful editorial written by Mr. Alasdair Coyne on this subject.
But when the editorial was read to us, we could not help but notice it did not explain all the issues in quite the right proportions. Everybody seems to think the biggest cause of global warming is all the oil and gasoline we use in our cars and trucks and SUV’s and trains and planes and other forms of transportation.
Mr. Coyne does not quite come right out and say this, but it is kind of implied all through his article.
We think it is very important for everyone to understand that transportation is a part of the problem, but not quite as big as you might imagine. All forms of transportation combined, all over the world, account for about fifteen percent of total greenhouse gases.
There is a bigger contributor to global warming that for some reason almost nobody ever talks about. And it is right under our noses. It is meat, dear friends — the whole livestock production industry that raises and slaughters cows, and our dear brother and sister pigs, and chickens, and all forms of animals raised for food. Livestock production worldwide contributes more to global warming than all forms of transportation combined.

There are many reasons why this occurs. One of the big ones is the methane produced in the stomachs of cows. But there are lots of other reasons, including the byproducts of fertilizers, and the terrible damage done to the planet by cutting down vast forests to make room for grain to feed to cows.
Mr. Alasdair Coyne has said in his editorial that he is going to be writing more about global warming in the future. And so we would like to ask him most respectfully to please explain to the world why livestock production is such a huge contributor to global warming. He is a very smart and thoughtful man and we are sure he can explain it much better than we can.
Sincerely yours,
Rosie and Tillie
Ojai Spokespigs
PS Here are the sources for our concerns:
Vegetarianism and the Environment by Kenley Neufeld
http://www.ojaipost.com/2007/10/vegetarianism_and_the_environm.shtml
In 2005, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization http://www.fao.org/
(FAO) began an in-depth assessment of the various significant impacts of the world’s livestock sector on the environment. Its report, titled Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options, http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/A0701E00.htm
was released on November 29th 2006.
Henning Steinfeld, chief of FAO’s Livestock Information and Policy Branch and senior of the report, in the executive summary, asserts that: “The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global. The findings of this report suggest that it should be a major policy when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change, air pollution, water shortage, water pollution and loss of biodiversity. Livestock’s contribution to environmental problems is on a massive scale and its potential contribution to their solution is equally large. The impact is so significant that it needs to be addressed with urgency
Meet Rosie and Tillie, Ojai’s First Spokespigs
http://www.ojaipost.com/2008/02/_meet_rosie_and_tillie_ojais_f.shtml