Reforestation seen as only viable smog solution

[webfact]

The latest episode of the Bangkok Post 'Deeper Dive' vodcast explores a long-term solution to northern Thailand's chronic smog problem.

 

Reforestation seen as only viable smog solution
Animal agriculture, not fossil fuels, is becoming the biggest driver of climate change worldwide

WRITER: DAVE KENDALL

Northern Thailand's chronic smog problem is usually blamed on burning crop waste, villagers burning wooded areas to pick mushrooms and vehicle emissions. The solutions, we are told, involve regulations and enforcement.

 

But according to an increasing number of scientists and activists, the problem runs deeper and requires a worldwide solution if we are to avoid a climate catastrophe. The real issue? We have turned almost half the world's habitable land into an animal farm.

 

In northern Thailand -- and in neighbouring areas in Myanmar and Laos -- we have cut down the forests and planted corn fed to chickens and pigs. That's a quadruple whammy for air pollution and climate change: first, we lose the trees and other biomass that absorbed the greenhouse gases. Second, burning down the forest releases tonnes of greenhouse gases. Third, growing corn requires planting and ploughing fields, and making and spreading fertiliser, all activities that burn fossil fuels and emit nitrous oxide and another powerful pollutants. Fourthly, many farmers still burn their crop waste.

 

Most people seem aware only of the fourth, the burning of crop residues, and that is certainly a major cause. "What is affecting us most is the by-product of agricultural burning," said Dr Rungsrit Kanjanavit of Chiang Mai University's Faculty of Medicine in the documentary SMOKE: A crisis in Northern Thailand. "It doesn't make a difference whether it's forest burning or the burning of crop waste. They create small particulates that are hydrocarbon-based," he explained, referring to PM2.5.

 

The 'curse of corn'

 

For environmental activist Michael Shafer, corn is the primary cause of northern Thailand's pollution problem. "The smoke problem in Chiang Mai province results largely from farmers burning their maize waste," he told the Bangkok Post. "Some of the smoke originates in Myanmar, but likely from the fields of Thai companies. Maize, raised for animal feed by huge agricultural products companies, has resulted in the deforestation of large areas and the destruction of habitat, biodiversity and watershed."

 

"Corn is really the issue here in Thailand. Animals eat corn… And more than half of this corn ends up being grown on what is technically legally protected forest areas."

 

Burning a cornfield, however, is just the final twist of a greenhouse gas spigot that began with deforestation to plant the corn. "It is important to look at the numbers of the decline of national forest reserves," said anti-deforestation campaigner Bunnaroth Buaklee. "Despite the status as a forest reserve, [in many places] the forest condition has disappeared."

 

"There has also been severe forest destruction in Laos and Myanmar's Shan State," he added.

 

"The animal feed business [is behind] the clear decline of forests in the past 10 years, both in Thailand and neighbouring countries."

 

In fact, the problem is worldwide. The percentage of forests and grasslands cleared for agriculture was 9% in 1700 -- and 46% today. It's mostly for livestock grazing and, like in northern Thailand, growing crops like corn and soy to feed pigs and chickens.

 

"The United Nations says that more climate change is attributable to the global meat industry than to all of the planes and trains and automobiles and trucks -- all forms of transport combined," Bruce Friedrich, director of the Good Food Institute, said in a TEDx talk.

 

"Every environmental issues you want to look at, from the smallest and most local to the largest and most global, the inefficiencies of animal agriculture are one of the top causes."

 

What are those inefficiencies? According to Oxford University-affiliated Our World In Data, 77% of agricultural land is used to feed and graze livestock -- yet it produces only 18% of global calories and 37% of protein. In fact, peer-reviewed academic studies show that it takes at least ten times as much fossil fuel, water and land to produce protein from animals rather than directly from the plants they eat. And because of that gross inefficiency, a full three-quarters of land now used for animal agriculture could be returned to nature if we cut out meat and dairy -- upper Southeast Asia could be reforested, and the smog levels decimated.

 

 

Meat alternatives

 

Nobody is expecting diets to completely change overnight -- especially with a dearth of competitively-priced alternatives. And that's what spurred Chiang Mai-based entrepreneur Smith Taweelerdniti into action.

 

"I started reading many books," he said in "Thailand's burning issue", the latest episode of the Bangkok Post Deeper Dive vodcast. He found out "a lot of diseases come from eating too many animal products. So I became vegetarian. But it was quite hard".

 

What Mr Smith found difficult about giving up meat was the lack of alternatives in most shops and restaurants. Since his family firm is a food manufacturer, however, the businessman saw the relative shortage of meat-free options in stores and restaurants as an opportunity to create the brand Let's Plant Meat.

 

"If I can create this at the right taste and the right pricing," he said, "we're giving options to people in here, Thailand and Asia, to wean away from animal meat".

 

Mr Smith's brand is far from the only meat alternative now available. CP Foods is blamed by some for the expanding cornfields, but the country's largest corporation has also taken steps to mitigate the problem by launching a brand called Meat Zero. Seafood conglomerate Thai Union has developed a plant-based brand called OMG Meat, and many others are available in supermarkets and some convenience stores.

 

Mr Smith told the Bangkok Post that although sales of plant-based meat are currently down industry-wide because of the weak economy, sales on Shopee are rising and he is placing more emphasis on new meat-free versions of traditional Thai cuisine such as larb and kaphrao, particularly to Japan, where imports of meat products are restricted.

 

For Mr Smith and a growing number of experts, the only viable long-term solution is shifting from the land-hogging, polluting inefficiencies of obtaining our nutrients from meat towards a plant-based diet that would allow global reforestation, rewilding and regeneration of the vast tracts of land laid waste by animal agriculture.

 

"The global warming issue, the sustainability, the deforestation that come through the food that we eat… People say no to Styrofoam, say no to plastic bags," he said. "They don't know that the food they eat can also cause harm to the planet. Our diet can help the world."

 

 

Source: Bangkok Post 2024-04-01

Republished with permission from the author

 

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[Purdey]

As the Smiths said, Meat is Murder.

[KhunLA]

55 minutes ago, Purdey said:

As the Smiths said, Meat is Murder.

As is most food consumption, veggies, fruits, grains.   We kill, or abort to survive.   Try surviving without killing or aborting something.

 

Had ribs yesterday ... damn tasty 

... with a side salad that someone killed the ingredients for me to have ... 

 

Have blueberries in my cereal or yogurt daily.  Aborted fruit that will never grow and live a full life.

 

Going to have aborted (murdered) chickens for brekkie, and possibly dinner.

 

Kill, pay someone to kill .... or die ... UP2U

Edited April 1 by KhunLA

[connda]

You will own nothing and be happy - and eat zee bugs commoner serfs.

[stoner]

45 minutes ago, Purdey said:

As the Smiths said, Meat is Murder.

 

john dutton said it best down on yellowstone ranch.........

 

@KhunLA like this :)

 

 

 

 

[couchpotato]

39 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

As is most food consumption, veggies, fruits, grains.   We kill, or abort to survive.   Try surviving without killing or aborting something.

 

Had ribs yesterday ... damn tasty 

... with a side salad that someone killed the ingredients for me to have ... 

 

Have blueberries in my cereal or yogurt daily.  Aborted fruit that will never grow and live a full life.

 

Going to have aborted (murdered) chickens for brekkie, and possibly dinner.

 

Kill, pay someone to kill .... or die ... UP2U

Seems like too many cups of coffee this morning!

[ChaiyaTH]

The country of black and white thinking... There is only ONE solution.

[mfd101]

6 minutes ago, ChaiyaTH said:

There is only ONE solution.

Depopulate or perish.

[rwill]

Yes.  Need to plant the trees again.  That way you have more to burn.

[Stocky]

19 minutes ago, rwill said:

Yes.  Need to plant the trees again.  That way you have more to burn.

Indeed, I was going to say there's little point planting more until you convince people to stop cutting them down and burning them.

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

The real issue? We have turned almost half the world's habitable land into an animal farm.

That maybe true in the west, however burning is the issue in Thailand and neighbouring countries.... it's the Asian way of life.

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, mfd101 said:

Depopulate or perish.

Thailands economy is doing just that, instead of the good old days and knocking out six kids they can only afford one or two.

[rovinman]

4 hours ago, mfd101 said:

Depopulate or perish.

 

That's right  !

If we get rid of 90% of the population, then the rest of what's left of the population, can start again  !
But Hang on  !  Isn't Hunting and Gathering doing just the same  ?
Our population will grow { in say 10,000 years } and the can will have been kicked FAR down the road, and we won't have to worry any more  !

Sound's like a PLAN  !

Now where did I put that Nuclear Bomb  ?  ?

[MarkBR]

Reforestation is good, but need to also deal with excessive undergrowth that provides fuel for fires.  Suggestion, deer used to be very common in Thailand but were poached to extinction in most parts.  Maybe reintroduce deer, this would have a benefit of reducing undergrowth, and I am sure some will disappear into the cooking pot of local rural thais reducing food poverty.

[connda]

1 hour ago, rwill said:

Yes.  Need to plant the trees again.  That way you have more to burn.

Good idea.  Deforestation is the way to go then the arsonist would have any forests to burn down and blame it on global warming.  The air would clear right up, well, except for all the sugar and corn fields that are burnt on the alter of Big Agricultural who privatize the profits and socialize the killer air pollution.

[connda]

21 minutes ago, MarkBR said:

Maybe reintroduce deer, this would have a benefit of reducing undergrowth

Thais would just wipe them out again.  It's not about reintroducing them; it's about enforcement.  It's funny that in the US enforcement is widespread and so effective that in many places deer, and even elk, are a road nuisance.  And yet in Thailand?  There is no will to do what it takes to preserve wildlife or the forests or the air quality.  And making the commoner eat f***ing bug is a BS solution.  Trust me - those trying to force that solution on the plebs will be enjoying Kobe beef steaks while flying in their private jets 35K feet above your dirty commoner's heads while on their way to their beach-front mansions which are suppose to be under 20 feet of water by now.  100% bravo sierra and kee kwai.

[Photoguy21]

Ever considered stopping the crop burning that goes on? Other countries grow crops but they dont all burn the old stalks every year.

[John Drake]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

For Mr Smith and a growing number of experts, the only viable long-term solution is shifting from the land-hogging, polluting inefficiencies of obtaining our nutrients from meat towards a plant-based diet that would allow global reforestation, rewilding and regeneration of the vast tracts of land laid waste by animal agriculture.

 

What you wanna bet they're going to make you eat bugs instead?

[quake]

33 minutes ago, John Drake said:

 

What you wanna bet they're going to make you eat bugs instead?

 

That's fine by me.

 

 

[spidermike007]

10 hours ago, KhunLA said:

As is most food consumption, veggies, fruits, grains.   We kill, or abort to survive.   Try surviving without killing or aborting something.

 

Had ribs yesterday ... damn tasty 

... with a side salad that someone killed the ingredients for me to have ... 

 

Have blueberries in my cereal or yogurt daily.  Aborted fruit that will never grow and live a full life.

 

Going to have aborted (murdered) chickens for brekkie, and possibly dinner.

 

Kill, pay someone to kill .... or die ... UP2U

Very few people would eat beef, lamb, or pork if they had to slaughter, and dress the animal themselves. 

 

And you just can't compare the raising of animals to vegetables, the resources required to create meat for consumption are staggering. 

[spidermike007]

This article is quite ridiculous and it suggests something that is likely impossible to do. It's idealistic in the extreme and it talks about a policy that would happen way too little way too late. No, that's not the solution, the solution is to get the sugar growers to stop burning, and the sugar refiners to stop purchasing burned sugar. The government has no interest in doing this because they're virtually owned and controlled by Big Agra, and we have a do-nothing PM. 

[MrPancake]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

Animal agriculture, not fossil fuels, is becoming the biggest driver of climate change

 

What?

[KhunLA]

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Very few people would eat beef, lamb, or pork if they had to slaughter, and dress the animal themselves. 

 

And you just can't compare the raising of animals to vegetables, the resources required to create meat for consumption are staggering. 

Definitely agree with first part, as I'd only get my protein from eggs & seafood, if had to kill it myself.  I've butchered deer, but my brother killed it, as no way could I do it.  Although, if having a proper rifle, I think I'd get over killing a steer or a pig.   As long as I didn't name it   

 

Chickens are too much hassle to pluck.  Killed a goose, and gave up, someone else had to finish it.  Ain't worth the hassle to me.

 

Raising, organically, old style doesn't take much resources at all.  But mass producing is a whole another industrial complex, for better profit margin.  Hence the amount of resources needed.  Home on the farm, they graze, they grow, but not to today's market standard.

 

Fruits & veggies can be quite the trial & error to master.  We get a few things right at the house, but other fail miserably.  Definitely need a greenhouse, or chemicals, which we won't use, hence the greenhouse, and a large one at that.