Beefs about meat.

• Author: Nierenberg, Danielle
• Position: From Readers - Letter to the Editor

World Watch's July/August cover story ("Meat: Now, It's Not Personal!") prompted a flurry of e-mails and letters from the NGO community. In addition to some praiseful remarks from animal welfare organizations, we also received some surprisingly critical comments from groups working on agricultural issues. In general, they argued that World-watch missed the boat by not pointing out the role of small livestock farmers in sustainable agriculture (see the following letter from Mark Muller, one of the more thoughtful responses to the article, which makes a number of points we mostly agree with).

The article's focus, which apparently we did not make explicit enough, was mainly the industrial system of meat production. A quick look at our publications list makes it clear that Worldwatch has been addressing the issue of sustainable agriculture in general, and sustainable meat production in particular, for a long time. In 1991, Worldwatch researchers Alan Durning and Holly Brough published Taking Stock: Animal Farming and the Environment. In addition to detailing the environmental effects of meat production--from the inefficient use of cropland to grow feed for animals to the destruction of tropical forests for grazing land--Durning and Brough also examined the importance of livestock for sustaining livelihoods and food security...