Ostrich, An Environmental Alternative For Red Meat? | Hong Kong Clogged by Excessive Takeaway Trash
Eating beef isn’t exactly the most environmentally friendly habit (an example: main reason for Amazon deforestation being beef). An alternative that seems to be popping up around the world is… Ostrich meat?
You can already find them in Japan and some parts of the United States, all touting the meat with a similar selling point: it’s a source of sustainable red meat.
Ostriches require less food and water, less land than cattle, and supposedly have a much higher yield of meat. A farmer in an article by Food52 estimates that
- cows only yield 2.7% of what an ostrich can
- water footprint of ostriches is roughly a third of cattle’s per pound of meat
- ostriches only require 2% of the land cattle needs
And we also don’t have to worry about cow farts polluting the environment (livestock produces about 14.5% of global pollution), because ostriches are single-stomach animals and produce little methane.
Unlike beef, ostrich meat has low-fat content and can be easily cooked too tough. Some have compared the meat to filet mignon. Though, it can be quite bland because of how lean the meat is (almost 97% fat-free).
Dining Ban Caused Takeaway Waste to Clog Hong Kong Facilities
Restaurants in Hong Kong can only operate at half-capacity with two people per table, and eating after 6 pm is banned. So trash from takeaway which has doubled (more than 101 million disposable plastic items for takeaway every week, more than double the amount discarded last year) and are now littering the streets and pouring out of trash bins.
Existing landfills in Hong Kong are expected to reach capacity this year and the Hong Kong government announced it was disposing of human graves for expansion.
Opinion section: I would encourage people to continue bringing their own container for takeaway, and for takeaway charges to continue since that seems to be the most straightforward way to encourage consumers who don’t see the long term environmental impacts.
