Beef and climate change are in the news these days, from cows’ alleged high-methane farts (fact check: they’re actually mostly high-methane burps) to comparisons with cars and airplanes (fact check: the world needs to reduce emissions from fossil fuels and agriculture to sufficiently rein in global warming). And as with so many things in the public sphere, it’s easy for the conversation to get polarized.

Drawing from our World Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future and other research, here are six common questions about beef and climate change:

How does beef production cause greenhouse gas emissions?

The short answer: Through the agricultural production process and through land-use change.

The longer explanation: Cows and other ruminant animals (such as goats and sheep) emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas, as they digest grasses and plants. This process is called "enteric fermentation," and it’s the origin of cows’ burps.

2. Is beef more resource-intensive than other foods?

The short answer: Yes.

The longer explanation: Ruminant animals have lower growth and reproduction rates than pigs and poultry, so they require a higher amount of feed per unit of meat produced. Animal feed requires land to grow, which has a carbon cost associated with it.

3. Why are some people saying beef production is only a small contributor to emissions?

The short answer: Such estimates commonly leave out land-use impacts, such as cutting down forests to establish new pastureland.

The longer explanation: There are a lot of statistics out there that account for emissions from beef production, but not from associated land-use change.

4. Can beef be produced more sustainably?

The short answer: Yes, although beef will always be resource-intensive to produce.

The longer explanation: The emissions intensity of beef production varies widely across the world, and improvements in the efficiency of livestock production can greatly reduce land use and emissions per pound of meat.

5. Do we all need to stop eating beef in order to curb climate change?

The short answer: No.

The longer explanation: Reining in climate change won’t require everyone to become vegetarian or vegan, or even to stop eating beef. If ruminant meat consumption in high-consuming countries declined to about 50 calories a day, or 1.5 burgers per person per week — about half of current U.S. levels and 25 percent below current European levels, but still well above the national average for most countries — it would nearly eliminate the need for additional agricultural expansion and associated deforestation. This is true even in a world with 10 billion people, projected to happen by 2050.

6. Would eating less beef be bad for jobs in the food and agriculture sector?

The short answer: Not necessarily.

The longer explanation: Given projected future growth in meat demand across the developing world, even if people in higher-income countries eat less beef, the global market for beef will likely continue to grow in the coming decades.

Read the full article about beef production and climate change by  Richard Waite, Tim Searchinger, Janet Ranganathan, Linnea Laestadius, and Jessica Zionts at GreenBiz.