The terms ‘plant-based’, ‘vegan’ and ‘vegetarian’ have been becoming increasingly common in recent years. A lot of people have decided to make the change to their diets for various reasons, one of them being because of the environment. The global West’s high consumption of meat and dairy is partly fuelling climate change, and switching to a plant-based diet is one of the best ways an individual can reduce their own carbon footprint.
The main problem is not just meat and animal products in general, it’s beef. This is because of cattle belches which release methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The cows’ burps are bad partly due to what they are fed; the methane released in their burps can be reduced by nearly 60% by adding a small amount of seaweed to their feed. Lots of land is used to grow crops to feed the cattle (not to mention other livestock, too). Massive amounts of beef are consumed mainly because it’s so affordable and available. In addition to this, 70% of Amazon rainforest destruction is to clear space for cattle ranching to tend to the high demands of beef in the USA. It is not just the USA, either. Around 30% of Brazilian beef is sent over to Europe. Normally if you buy a steak, you can find out from the packet where the meat has come from. It is in products such as meat pies when Brazilian or irresponsibly sourced beef is used, and the source is unknown to the consumer. As countries develop and get richer they tend to consume more and more meat. What we would need to be seeing in the future to reduce the enormous demand is fewer beef on the shelves in supermarkets, and the beef that would be there would be more expensive.
Another large problem within the food industry is food miles. Our food has to get to us somehow, whether it’s eggs from next door’s garden, or lamb from New Zealand. The majority of foods do not display their carbon footprints on their packaging. Recently, more companies are starting to add it to their packets; for example a carton of whole Oatly oat drink’s climate footprint is 0.41kg CO2e/KG. These are good steps because they help us to see which foods are worse than others. A lot of foods do say where they have come from, so you can get a feel for how many greenhouse gases have been released by making the product, however not many people will take the time to read those labels, and then figure out how far away that is.
To make a difference, we would not need every single person to go vegan, or even just vegetarian. Although those steps are incredibly beneficial and can reduce an individual’s carbon footprint, more subtle changes would also make a difference. If those of us who are able to were to think more carefully about what food we buy and have overall more plant-based diets, then that would help us to do our bit and reduce our carbon footprints. As said before, the main issue with our diets is beef, so if everybody ate less beef, or less produced beef (so local steak, rather than meat pies), that would make a difference. We would also need a system change; the way in which animals are dealt with and fed is often inadequate. We would need to feed cows foods that made them healthier and made their belches less potent.
Unfortunately, this transition to more plant-based diets would put many peoples’ jobs and livelihoods at risk. Although many consumers wouldn’t be eliminating animal products from their diets entirely by following plant-based diets, it would still mean that there would be less demand for those products. So, to go alongside changes to diets, there would also need to be more support for farmers who would normally farm animals, and guidance for how they can make a healthy transition to farming more plants and fewer animals.
The problem is, how do we get people to change their ways? Well, if these kinds of things were taught in schools then people could know and understand where their food comes from and which foods are harmful to the environment. With that knowledge they could then make more informed decisions about what they eat. It would be entirely an individual’s choice whether or not to make a change to their diets, but it’s time we really knew what impact our food has. It’s time we understood food miles and farming. After all, 26% of global emissions come from food, and over half of those come from animal products. We shouldn’t have to research everything ourselves to know the impact of what we eat.
