Most Hongkongers eat meat every day, but we may be unaware that producing that meat is having a destructive impact on the Earth’s environment (“Why Hong Kong’s love affair with meat is leaving planet paying price through carbon emissions”, June 9).

Raising animals for food requires massive amounts of land, feed, energy and water, not to speak of the cruelty of killing them for meat. But we are also hurting ourselves.

A by-product of food production is greenhouse gases, and the National Academy of Sciences says that about 50 per cent of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in the US are caused by animal farming. Livestock like cattle emit global-warming gases such as methane, as a by-product of digestion, while producing meat for food involves large amounts of water and significant deforestation. The Washington-based Worldwatch Institute says deciding whether humans get most of their protein from animals or plants will have a direct effect on the world’s forests, and that an easy way to reduce the demand for water is to reduce meat consumption.