climate change – Is reindeer meat sustainable? – GWC Mag

Beef is generally considered unsustainable, since cows are ruminants that fill the atmosphere with methane. The greenhouse gas effects are massive per a kilogram of produced beef.

However, something which I’m unsure about is the sustainability of reindeer meat. I know it’s healthier than beef and more ethical than beef (since reindeer live a free life), but I’m not interested in that; I’m interested in the climate impacts of reindeer meat.

Aren’t reindeer ruminants just like cows? If so, are there any studies which estimate whether the amount of methane they produce per kilogram of meat is at all comparable to the amount of methane cows produce?

If reindeer are ruminants, I guess the environmental effects can’t be compared with hunted game meat since hunted meat is not artificially grown but just taken away from the naturally occurring population (so they don’t produce any extra methane that would otherwise be unproduced), whereas reindeer are artificially grown.