In his latest book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, The Solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates takes a none-too-veiled swipe at the meat industry as a contributor to global warming. One of his solutions, “… people in rich countries will need to change some habits — we’ll have to eat less meat, …”

Mr. Gates’ writing style is common sense, down-to-earth (pun intended) and self-deprecating. In his rhetorical logic, Mr. Gates brings clarity to a complex and mathematically dramatic subject — climate change.

His book is more than a bait-and-switch tactic. He trots out enteric fermentation, which is the four-chambered ruminant animal’s digestive process of turning cellulose into edible protein, as a prime culprit contributing to global warming. He often refers to cattle belches and flatulence, or in his terms, “burps and farts,” as prime contributors to methane emissions. He asserts that the world’s roughly 1 billion cattle raised for meat and dairy every year and the methane they burp and fart out account for about 4% of all global emissions.

Mr. Gates makes it clear that to quell the meat industry’s climate change contributions, those of power and wealth, not unlike himself, should stop eating meat in favor of the synthetic “faux” meat.

Spoiler alert: Mr. Gates has invested in two companies that produce plant-based products — Impossible Foods and Beyond Meats. Is he trying to justify such investments by indicting the ruminant animal’s global warming contributions thereby enhancing these companies’ value? I think not. This Seattle native invests his money for both acumen and altruism by supporting companies for whom he holds both sway and belief.

However, for a guy who says he enjoys an occasional real beef cheeseburger, Mr. Gates’ meat industry options to reduce carbon emissions are decidedly formidable and dark. His goal is to reduce total carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to net-zero emissions which means, by his math, a 51 billion-ton-per-year reduction worldwide in GHG by 2050.

To help eliminate the burps and farts, Mr. Gates recommends that consumers switch beef-eating habits to plant-based products. To this, we must respond realistically and factually. Climate change is real, and facts tell us that it time is limited with disastrous human implications if we don’t do something to stem its inexorable march. Are plant-based and cell-cultured “meat” products the answer? Partially, yes, but not totally.

What can we do to reduce animal agriculture’s GHG emissions?

According to Mr. Gates, it will take a wholesale change in the infrastructure of the cattle/beef production continuum. What does that mean? The beef industry included 93,594,500 cattle and calves in the U.S. inventory as of January 1, 2021 (Source: NCBA) spread out over ranches and feedlots, not to mention all the processing infrastructure, etc., that would be eliminated or dramatically reduced in Mr. Gates's scenario. It begs the question: Just what do you do about them, and the hundreds of thousands if not millions of working folks supporting this industry? A problem to which Mr. Gates offers no solutions.

Professors Temple Grandin of Colorado State and Frank Mitloehner of UC Davis at the recent “Top Producer Summit and Trust in Food Symposium: Regenerative Reset,” presented their thoughts on beef industry sustainability. Both concluded that while climate change is real and happening, animal agriculture’s contribution can be ameliorated or substantially reduced with some production changes.

I agree with these two august scientists. We within the industry must figure out how we can contribute to solving this climate change crisis. Maybe it’s something like Beano for cattle to eliminate the “farts and burps.” Am I being facetious? Maybe not.

Quite frankly, Bill Gates is correct. By now it should be undeniable that we in the beef industry bear some of the responsibility for global warming. I am saddened but unchastened by those in our industry who continue to deny animal agriculture’s climate change contributions as well as those who point to other causes, trying to lessen our culpability. We are at fault, as Mr. Gates asserts. His facts are correct. We need to address and cure them as we cannot wait to have ill-timed and unwanted change forced upon us!

Hey Bill Gates, the meat industry has a bone to pick with you

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