The True Cost of Beef Consumption

PRI
It's not even meat versus vegetables: “Basically, it is really beef versus everything else,” says Gideon Eshel, a research professor in environmental science and physics at Bard College who co-authored the study.
Eshel and his group set out to measure the costs of producing beef, poultry and eggs, and the results were staggering. Producing 1 mega-calorie of beef — or 1,000 calories — requires about 150 square meters of land. By comparison, eggs or poultry require about five square meters.And the numbers kept coming: The beef uses 1.6 cubic meters of water compared to about .1 cubic meters of water for eggs or poultry. Most shockingly, beef contributes to water pollution eight times more than eggs or poultry.
“A factor of eight is staggering,” Eshel says. “By comparison, a Prius is more efficient than a Hummer by barely a factor of two. A factor of eight is truly amazing.”