Let’s keep burning our fossil fuels. Keep going on air travel. Concrete everything. Deforest it all. Keep not investing in green energy. Not cut down on waste. Not reduce consumption, but let’s stop eating meat. It’s all down to us. It’s all on us. Not industry.
Environmental issues used to be multifaceted and commonly accepted that environmental impact was baked in at design phase, but nowadays it feels like a vegan religion. A purity test. It doesn’t bring people on the journey, it just pushes people away. It’s better everyone cuts 30% emissions, rather than 1% of people cutting 60%, and the rest not caring after being constantly shamed and told what to do.
Social media seems to have really dumbed down this issue.
Where did they say to not do any other action? We have to address both fossil fuels and emissions from the meat industry if we want to meat climate targets. We cannot afford to ignore either
even if fossil fuel emissions were eliminated immediately, emissions from the global food system alone would make it impossible to limit warming to 1.5°C and difficult even to realize the 2°C target
To reduce emissions from the meat industry, most of that is going to have to come from reductions in meat consumption. The process itself is just quite inefficient
If I source my beef or lamb from low-impact producers, could they have a lower footprint than plant-based alternatives?The evidence suggests, no: plant-based foods emit fewer greenhouse gases than meat and dairy, regardless of how they are produced.
I wasn’t talking about the article, I was talking about online discourse. Whenever climate has come up, it’s almost always focussed on meat only in recent times.
We know plant based emit fewer emissions. We know red meat produces more than other meat such as chicken. We do need to make progress on emissions, and that can be cutting down meat consumption and also switching from red meat to chicken. If you eat red meat 7 days a week, and have 2 days without, and 2 days chicken instead, you’re making inroads on emissions. Why is there a fixation of veganism? That was the comment I was responding to. I think it has less about the environment and more about vegans who are using the climate to further push their own personal agenda.
I largely agree with you. Blaming individuals is often a deflection from larger industrial responsibilities. Yes, consumer choices matter, but the real heavyweight is industrial emissions. And oh, the irony of the ‘eco-friendly’ vegan industry churning out carbon-intensive faux meats. It’s less about what’s on the plate and more about who’s cooking the books.
Plant-based foods of any kind are dramatically lower in nearly every environmental metric. They are not carbon-intensive at all
If I source my beef or lamb from low-impact producers, could they have a lower footprint than plant-based alternatives?The evidence suggests, no: plant-based foods emit fewer greenhouse gases than meat and dairy, regardless of how they are produced.
[…]
Plant-based protein sources – tofu, beans, peas and nuts – have the lowest carbon footprint. This is certainly true when you compare average emissions. But it’s still true when you compare the extremes: there’s not much overlap in emissions between the worst producers of plant proteins, and the best producers of meat and dairy.
EDIT: I should also mention the emissions also mostly come from what’s produced rather than in differences in things like transportation, processing, etc.
Transport is a small contributor to emissions. For most food products, it accounts for less than 10%, and it’s much smaller for the largest GHG emitters. In beef from beef herds, it’s 0.5%.
Not just transport but all processes in the supply chain after the food leaves the farm – processing, transport, retail, and packaging – mostly account for a small share of emissions.
Let’s keep burning our fossil fuels. Keep going on air travel. Concrete everything. Deforest it all. Keep not investing in green energy. Not cut down on waste. Not reduce consumption, but let’s stop eating meat. It’s all down to us. It’s all on us. Not industry.
Environmental issues used to be multifaceted and commonly accepted that environmental impact was baked in at design phase, but nowadays it feels like a vegan religion. A purity test. It doesn’t bring people on the journey, it just pushes people away. It’s better everyone cuts 30% emissions, rather than 1% of people cutting 60%, and the rest not caring after being constantly shamed and told what to do.
Social media seems to have really dumbed down this issue.
Where did they say to not do any other action? We have to address both fossil fuels and emissions from the meat industry if we want to meat climate targets. We cannot afford to ignore either
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba7357
To reduce emissions from the meat industry, most of that is going to have to come from reductions in meat consumption. The process itself is just quite inefficient
https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local
I wasn’t talking about the article, I was talking about online discourse. Whenever climate has come up, it’s almost always focussed on meat only in recent times.
We know plant based emit fewer emissions. We know red meat produces more than other meat such as chicken. We do need to make progress on emissions, and that can be cutting down meat consumption and also switching from red meat to chicken. If you eat red meat 7 days a week, and have 2 days without, and 2 days chicken instead, you’re making inroads on emissions. Why is there a fixation of veganism? That was the comment I was responding to. I think it has less about the environment and more about vegans who are using the climate to further push their own personal agenda.
I would agree.
I largely agree with you. Blaming individuals is often a deflection from larger industrial responsibilities. Yes, consumer choices matter, but the real heavyweight is industrial emissions. And oh, the irony of the ‘eco-friendly’ vegan industry churning out carbon-intensive faux meats. It’s less about what’s on the plate and more about who’s cooking the books.
Plant-based foods of any kind are dramatically lower in nearly every environmental metric. They are not carbon-intensive at all
https://ourworldindata.org/less-meat-or-sustainable-meat
EDIT: I should also mention the emissions also mostly come from what’s produced rather than in differences in things like transportation, processing, etc.
https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local