Patience from the professor
31/10/2018
Within a few days, Professor Mitloehner’s essay, ‘Yes, eating meat affects the environment, but cows are not killing the climate’, more than 120 comments had come in, a number of them excoriating all aspects of animal agriculture and some of them even attacking the professor, accusing him of being in the pay of the meat industry. Beside his by-line, his declared interests are listed: he receives some funding from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA).
The grace, kindness, patience and detail with which Professor Frank Mitloehner answered readers’ comments was striking. He noted in one response that a few self-identified critics of animal agriculture who had commented “raised their concerns about a broad brush of externalities around livestock”, rather than focus on greenhouse gas emissions.
“Most had not really understood the core messages but simply raised their frustration,” he said. “Quite frankly, to me it appeared like a concerted effort of an organisation unleashing its members to engage, and I am saying that due to the similarity in content and tone.”
However he said the experience had been good overall, and added that he was thankful that we live in a society in which we can freely engage in discussions of this kind. “We don’t have to agree but as long as we are civil, we advance our knowledge and find some common ground,” he said.
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