I’ve actually never used a carbon calculator to estimate my footprint. Partly because I don’t want to link what I do to become more sustainable to just lowering carbon outputs, but also because I really don’t have any way of know my impact for lots of things- since I never got power or water bills in my last apartment, I couldn’t guess at that, and now I live with other people, so it’s still hard to determine what amount of energy I’m using. I liked the “Consumer Consequences” (http://sustainability.publicradio.org/consumerconsequences/) survey at NPR- it measures the number of earths it would take to support humans, if everyone lived the way you live. I was at 4 earths, now I’m at 2.5- and I suspect that, just by living in America, I’m going to be above 1. Check it out, does it make you feel guilty? It does for me, but I’m getting used to that feeling.

dcf- Thanks for the ideas, I’ll check out the farm, and the restaurant. The summit was very enjoyable! More on that after I get through my exam this evening.

As for human management of cows…take a look at EPA’s Concentrated Animal Feedlot Operations (CAFO) settlement. http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/agreements/caa/cafo-agr-qa.html
As you’ll see, farms with air emissions controls (especially cow farms, where the animals are not in enclosed barns) are basically nonexistent. I mean, in theory, sure you COULD put them all in a barn and then try to capture the methane and send it somewhere to be burned for fuel. Although one has to wonder whether the animals might not get sick from being in such an environment (mental well-being aside), which gets back to more antibiotics, etc. to keep them alive. Ask anyone who lives downwind from a CAFO how it smells. Further, many of the species raised in CAFOs are not designed to be eating grain and so produce more gases than they would naturally. Then there’s the waste aspect. Right now, farmers just pile it up somewhere and let mother nature disperse of it (largely). This is how we got pfisteria in the Potomac and kids died of e. coli in North Carolina (from pig manure and then massive flooding). There is carbon that would go in treating that waste, if one were to actually do so in a responsible manner. The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (the sustainable eating book of 2007) paints a very lovely picture of the scene, and he and the owner of Polyface make a pretty compelling case about the energy value of naturally-raised animals vs. being vegetarian. Plus, the final carbon footprint of a CAFO-raised animal needs to take into account the resources and greenhouse gases that went into raising the grain used to feed those animals.

I don’t know the answer. In the end, it’s that we all need to eat less meat.

Cool blog. Hope you enjoyed the summit. The City/EPC/VA Tech worked very hard to make it happen and are so excited to know that folks like you decided to drag yourselves out of bed to get involved. Keep it coming - we’ll need you going forward!

cheers,
danielle