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Meat: A Threat to Our Planet?

From colossal farms in America to the destruction of the Amazon, Liz Bonnin investigates how our hunger for meat is killing our planet.

Following on from 2018鈥檚 award-winning Drowning In Plastic, science and wildlife presenter Liz Bonnin is travelling around the world to investigate the impact that our hunger for meat is having on our planet鈥檚 environment.

Reports from the IPCC and the FAO revealed that the global livestock industry is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than the running of all the world鈥檚 transport combined - and it鈥檚 polluting our air, land, and water. So just how bad is the problem, and what can we do about it?

Liz travels from Texan megafarms, where 50,000 cows belch out vast amounts of planet-warming methane, to giant pig farms producing colossal quantities of polluting manure. In the Amazon rainforest she discovers how beef farming is a leading cause of deforestation, and comes face to face with a baby harpy eagle - a species rapidly losing its habitat as cattle farmers cut down the forest. Feeding our planet鈥檚 livestock is also leading to huge biodiversity loss and, in South Africa, Liz discovers how this is affecting life in our oceans, helping to drive the African penguin towards extinction.

Liz also meets the scientists and entrepreneurs urgently looking for solutions. At a university in California, Liz puts her hand directly into the stomach of a cow - all in the name of reducing methane emissions. In North Carolina she meets an entrepreneur who鈥檚 using his manure to power local homes. And in San Francisco, she becomes one of the first people in the world to try a lab-made chicken nugget - a product that might reduce the environmental damage caused by meat production.

Liz finishes her journey on a small farm in Wales, where she meets a family who have shifted their relationship with meat by taking the bold step of slaughtering their own animals.

At the end of her journey, Liz starts to assess her own attitude to meat, and questions what we can all do to save our fragile planet.

57 minutes

Last on

Mon 25 Nov 2019 23:15

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Liz Bonnin
Director Olly Bootle
Executive Producer Tom Watt-Smith
Production Company Raw TV

Broadcasts

  • Mon 25 Nov 2019 21:00
  • Mon 25 Nov 2019 23:15

Can you eat meat without damaging the environment?

Can you eat meat without damaging the environment?

This question is asked often, and the answers given can be divisive.