Another meaty issue for Liz to sink her teeth into...
PICK OF THE DAY
YOU don’t have to be Greta Thunberg or David Attenborough to know that we’re currently facing an environmental crisis.
Climate change and its effects are visible every day. But what you might not be aware of is that one of the biggest contributing factors to the mess the planet is in is meat.
This fascinating and somewhat horrifying documentary fronted by science and wildlife presenter Liz Bonnin, following on from last year’s Drowning in Plastic, shows just what impact our fondness for eating flesh has on the planet as a whole. And it’s seriously eye-opening, jawdropping stuff.
The statistics alone are staggering: every year we consume an incredible 65 billion animals. And it’s not just the space these animals occupy, although that’s the single biggest contributing factor to deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.
It’s also what happens to the waste products these vast numbers of creatures produce, which can pollute waterways and result in huge increases of toxic greenhouse gases.
Or the resulting effects having to find food sources to fatten all these animals up has on other wildlife, like the nowendangered African penguin.
However, we also see the work being done by people to try and counteract these problems and find future-proof solutions.
Liz is open about being a carnivore herself, but it becomes clear that making the documentary may affect that decision. As it may well for viewers.
MEAT: A THREAT TO OUR PLANET? BBC1, 9pm
Liz Bonnin inside Europe’s biggest pig abattoir in Denmark
Liz with cows going through a seaweed feed trial at University of California, Davis