Skip a burger, save the planet

Ronald McDonald won't be happy with the column by Derrick Jackson in the Boston Globe. Nor with the poster being distributed for Earth Day, a.k.a. Low Carbon Diet Day.

"With fatal food riots in poor nations, and with China rapidly approaching Western levels of consumption, we in the obese United States must redefine what constitutes, to borrow from McDonald's, a 'happy meal,''' Jackson writes. "Scientists are concluding that along with more fuel-efficient cars and curbing industrial pollution, the simple act of eating less meat could help slow global warming.''

Quoting from a study in British medical journal the Lancet, Jackson writes that stabilizing agricultural production requires a 10 percent cut in meat consumption. The study notes the significant amount of methane and nitrous oxide already being released (including flatulence and gases from manure) in global meat and milk production, which is on course to double by 2050.

Check out what the company providing food to MIT, several other local universities and Cisco Systems in Boxborough has done in response. Bon Appetit Management Company, which serves 80 million meals a year nationwide, is committing to reduce its carbon emissions by 25 percent, cutting beef and cheese purchases by that percentage and choosing only meats raised in North America. It will stop purchasing any air freighted seafood and buy only local or frozen-at-sea fish.

Still don't believe this carbon footprint business about meat and dairy? Check out Gary Hirshberg's new book, "Stirring It Up,'' in which the CE-Yo of New Hampshire-based Stonyfield Yogurt says the biggest source of carbon emissions in his operation is, no kidding, cows! By the way, ask a question now to Hirshberg here (he'll be chatting with Boston.com readers on green business at 10 a.m. Friday.) Here's an insightful interview with him last month from the green site Treehugger.