The footprint of lamb, relatively rarely eaten in the US, was not considered in the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Prof Tim Benton, at the University of Leeds, said the new work is based on national US data, rather than farm-level studies, and provides a useful overview. But the message for the consumer is even stronger. Avoiding excessive meat consumption, especially beef, is good for the environment.
Fixing our broken food system is going to require substantial policy and corporate changes, as well as consumers making better choices. The beef versus chicken conversation is part of how we get there.
Meat is one of the most popular foods, and yet building a better world is going to require inducing consumers to switch away from it — and not just switch between different categories of meat as they weigh the different environmental and moral catastrophes it causes.
These plant-based products are already difficult to distinguish from the originals, while having a lighter carbon footprint and no impact on animals. If you avoid beef by switching to plant-based meat products, you really are improving the world and improving conditions for the humans and animals that live on it.
Our food system delivers meat cheaply at an awful price. Correction, May 24 : A previous version of this article misstated a resource-per-calorie comparison of meat and vegetables.
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By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Future Perfect Are we turning the corner on Covid treatments? Factory farms can also increase the spread of disease , both between animals and from animals to humans. The risk is higher for industrial meat farms because huge numbers of animals are crammed into small spaces, and the animals themselves have weaker immune systems.
This means that viruses can develop more rapidly and have the potential to pass to humans. Companies sometimes argue that industrial meat is an efficient way to produce food, but this ignores its true costs.
Just 1kg of chicken meat takes 3. By eating mostly plant-based food, we could feed more people — with all the calories and nutrition needed for a healthy diet — without destroying forests.
Supermarkets, like Tesco, play a huge role in shaping customer demand through advertising, price cuts and special promotions. Tesco sells more meat and uses more soya for animal feed than any other supermarket in the UK.
And despite committing to stop supporting forest destruction by , they are still buying meat from suppliers linked to deforestation. They need to halve the amount of meat they sell by , and ultimately phase out industrial meat entirely. They must replace that meat with more plant-based food options, and immediately stop buying from companies owned by forest destroyers, JBS. Replace half the meat you sell with plant-based food by You can opt out at any time.
We take the security of your data seriously. The issue is further compounded because soybean farming for animal feed is relatively inefficient when it comes to water usage.
Livestock production also contributes to water pollution around the world because manure contaminates watercourses. Raising animals often requires a lot of grazing land.
However, the intensive nature of this grazing can lead to bare soil, which is then often lost due to wind or rain. As a result, fertile lands become barren, waterways become clogged, and there is an increased risk of flooding. Soil is also a large reservoir for carbon, absorbing it as plants and trees die. As soil is lost, it releases that carbon as CO2 into the atmosphere. Animal agriculture, deforestation, and other land-use changes that reduce soil have been the second-largest contributors to CO2 emissions globally.
As we explored in our post on reducing your carbon footprint , the link between carbon emissions and climate change is undeniable. The evidence above all seems fairly conclusive, and there is plenty of science and research to back it up. The scale and intensity of meat production, combined with projected population growth estimates, shows that current practices are bad for the environment. There is no precise answer to this question.
It ultimately comes down to your personal choice. However, several reports and studies, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC special report on climate change and land , recommend reducing meat consumption. So, although individual choice plays a significant role in reducing meat consumption, it is also the responsibility of governments and organisations to make policy changes. As we explored in our post on how to build a sustainable diet , there are quite a few suggestions as to what a sustainable diet includes.
Other experts, such as the EAT Forum, suggest that our diets should shift towards flexitarian. This means that individuals should eat more vegetarian foods, with small amounts of fish and meat.
For eating meat, a general guideline is one beef burger a week or one large steak a month. With our course on the future of food and sustainability , you can learn more about how we can all eat more sustainably. As we explore in our open step on the pros and cons of alternative proteins , there are several options:. Of course, none of these alternatives come without potential downsides. By damaging ecosystems and releasing greenhouse gases, the global meat industry is contributing to climate change.
The impact of meat on the environment is not currently sustainable. By reducing the amount of meat we eat and striving for a more sustainable diet, we can each help to reduce the damage to the environment.
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