The Meat of the Problem
The New Scientist reported today that a study by the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Japan shows that producing one kilogram of beef generates more greenhouse gas emissions than running a car for three hours.
I assume that the cow isn’t entirely to blame here, though a cow pie sure kicks up a lot of something gaseous. The heavy emissions must mainly be in the form of the business systems around the cow today…the machines and vats and transport systems that process several tons of animal into plastic-wrapped slabs of juicy goodness.
Typically, we talk about technologies that solve business problems. Here is a technical problem which, I’m going to assert, will have to be solved through business model innovations (with some enabling technical inventions to be sure).
Maybe what made me think about this is the fact that the study came out of Japan. This is the birthplace of modern quality process and supply chain logistics – one of the most tangible areas for business concept research.
I read somewhere that cow fart(excuse the language) creates an enormous amount of Green House gases