October 1, 2008 | 8:22 am

Is a kosher diet eco-friendly?

The eco kosher movement has taken off in the last few years. But Emily Gertz of Scientific American ran the numbers to see what the environmental impact would be if the world kept kosher. Her findings were mixed, depending on what people would substitute for non-kosher fare, like pork and shrimp:

What would the environment look like if everyone kept kosher? Per capita, Americans consume about 63.5 pounds (29 kilograms) of beef, 48.2 pounds (22 kilograms) of pork and 59 pounds (27 kilograms) of chicken per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They also down 54 pounds (25 kilograms) of fish and shellfish, including about four pounds (two kilograms) of shrimp (the U.S.’s most popular seafood), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Fisheries Service.

So how does a kosher diet fare as one that is ecofriendly? Time for some calculations: first, let’s assume that kosher vegetarians would still steer clear of meat in any quantity, even if they did not keep kosher, meaning that observing the rules would have no impact. Let’s also assume that kosher omnivores consume the same average weight of meat per capita as other Americans, but replace pork with either beef or chicken. That would have an impact. Solely in terms of how much grain livestock consume, producing a pound (0.45 kilogram) of beef releases 13.67 pounds (6.2 kilograms) of greenhouse gases, compared with around 6.75 pounds (3.1 kilograms) to produce a pound of pork, and 3.37 pounds (1.5 kilograms) for every pound of chicken—and this does not even take into account the other factors in meat’s carbon footprint, from deforestation for pasturage to shipping it to market. Globally, meat production generates 18 percent of the world’s man-made greenhouse gases, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

That means replacing nonkosher pork with an equivalent 48 pounds (22 kilograms) of beef releases about 1,504 pounds (682 kilograms) of greenhouse gases annually, compared with 1,378 pounds (625 kilograms) of carbon a year for the pork-friendly eater.

Of course, you could go the other way: If the kosher-only omnivore replaced all the pork with chicken, their greenhouse emissions would drop to 1,216 pounds (552 kilograms) per annum. But if the “pork difference” were split equally between beef and chicken, the kosher-only meat diet would yield 1,460 pounds (662 kilograms) of emissions—about 6 percent more than the nonkosher diet.

What about shrimp? It takes 243 gallons (920 liters) of diesel fuel to trawl about 1.1 tons (one metric ton) of the shellfish, according to Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making shrimp one of the most energy-intensive wild seafood harvests, with a footprint of 5,395 pounds (2,447 kilograms) of carbon dioxide per metric ton even before processing and transportation are taken into account. And shrimp farming (which provides well over one million metric tons of shrimp annually, about 25 percent of all shrimp consumed) has been linked to the destruction of almost half of the world’s mangroves: coastal forests that absorb carbon dioxide and provide essential habitat for wild fish species. Crab, meanwhile, was among the least energy-intensive species to catch in the Dalhousie study, whereas the fuel needed to collect a ton of lobster swung wildly—ranging from 5.3 gallons (20 liters) per metric ton in Iceland to about 38 gallons (144 liters) in Maine to 271 gallons (1,025 liters) in Norway.

Just as with livestock, the ultimate green boost from kosher law’s taboo on shrimp and other shellfish depends on what you eat in its place. Assuming that the kosher consumer replaces the average American’s four pounds of shrimp a year (and its 9.79 pounds, or 4.4 kilograms, of carbon dioxide emissions) with another fish, Canadian North Atlantic herring is a good choice: it takes around 5.28 gallons (20 liters) of fuel to purse seine (net using two trawlers) a metric ton of these small fish, according to Dalhousie, releasing about 117 pounds (53 kilograms) of carbon dioxide—meaning four pounds of herring have a carbon footprint of a mere 0.21 pound (0.09 kilogram). Wild U.S. or Canadian salmon take an average of just over six gallons (23 liters) of fuel per metric ton to catch, releasing about 133 pounds (60 kilograms) of carbon dioxide. So eating four pounds of salmon a year would account for 0.24 pound (0.1 kilogram) of carbon dioxide. Both of these are obviously just a fraction of the 9.79 pounds of carbon dioxide for the shrimp eater.

Tuna are energy hogs by comparison, needing about 460 gallons (1,740 liters)—twice the fuel of trawling for shrimp—to harvest the same single metric ton of tuna. That adds up to a massive 10,212 pounds (4,632 kilograms) of carbon dioxide per catch. So eating four pounds a year would have a footprint of 18.5 pounds (8.4 kilograms) of carbon dioxide, almost twice the shrimp eater’s footprint.

Kosher rules do remove some overfished wild species from your plate—such as sharks, which are in serious decline worldwide, according to the Monterey Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program. On the other hand, some popular fish that are kosher, such as bluefin tuna and Chilean sea bass are also in peril.

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Tags: eco friendly, eco-friendly, eco-kashrut, eco-kosher, environment, environmental, kashrut, kosher, scientific american

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