In the summer of 2019, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a special report dedicated to the relationship between climate change and land use, which included an extensive section on food security and the impact of diet on the planet. One of the measures proposed was the reduction of meat consumption globally, and indicated that diets in which plant-based foods predominate are healthier and more sustainable. “Some dietary options require more soil and water, and cause more heat-trapping gas emissions than others,” explained Debra Roberts, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group II. “Diets balanced with plant-based foods, such as coarse grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables, and animal-based foods produced sustainably in systems with low greenhouse gas emissions, present great opportunities to adapt and limit climate change “, he added.
The conclusions of the IPCC report were not new, as these documents are based on the exhaustive compilation and analysis of the scientific evidence accumulated so far on the subject. There are many works that have addressed the environmental footprint of the diet from many perspectives, and international organizations such as the FAO or the UN have been warning for years that meat production has a significant impact on climate change.
For example, in June 2018, a study published in the journal Science analyzed the environmental impacts of the production of thousands of foods. One of their many findings revealed that, depending on where you live, plant-based diets can generate up to 73% less greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than animal ones. In addition to this decrease in GHG emissions, fewer compounds that cause acidification and eutrophication of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems are also released. In addition, 76% less agricultural land would be needed. “This would ease the pressure on the world’s tropical forests and return the land to nature,” explained Joseph Poore, a researcher at the University of Oxford and one of the signatories of the paper.
In 2015, a study published in Environmental Research Letters concluded that livestock production contributes significantly to the global impacts of the entire food sector in Europe: it is responsible for 78% of the impacts of food production on the loss of terrestrial biodiversity, from 80% of soil acidification and air pollution by emissions of ammonia and nitrogen oxide, and 73% of water pollution (both nitrogen and phosphorus), among others.
Another work published in the PNAS magazine in 2019 reviewed the impact on health and the environment of several common foods in the Western diet, and also concluded that red and processed meat was one of the worst options in both senses. The prestigious magazine The Lancet has a commission dedicated to these issues: EAT-Lancet Commission for Food, Planet, Health that makes a proposal for a ‘planetary diet’, good for the climate and health, in which proteins of animal origin suppose a very small percentage of the total food that we should consume.
On the other hand, not all livestock production systems produce the same impacts since, for example, intensive livestock generates more carbon dioxide emissions and impacts than extensive livestock. When rethinking meat consumption, it is therefore extremely important to take this into account.
Possible improvements are also being evaluated to minimize impacts on production, such as curbing increased use of land for food and fertilizers. With regard to methane, for example, the researcher Pep Canadell, director of the Global Carbon Project , explained to us last year in an interview that “by means of an adequate selection of the varieties of cattle , a reduction of up to 10% of the emissions without any change in feed or additives . Europe is one of the regions that has reduced its methane emissions in the last two decades, and it has done so through new regulations on livestock and better management of manure and landfills, which are also large emitters ”.
Even so, the scientific evidence is clear: it is not necessary to stop eating meat, but if we want to protect our health and that of the planet, we must consume it in moderation and, if possible, choose the one that has generated the least environmental impacts in its production and distribution. It is true that better quality meat or meat produced in extensive systems has a higher cost but, if instead of consuming a lot of cheap meat produced in a very intensive and polluting way, we consume less but produced in better conditions, at an economic level it should not be noticed the difference.
Not just meat consumption
International organizations also indicate that reducing meat consumption is not the only factor to take into account to minimize the impact of the human diet on the planet. Food waste, for example, is a point on which both the IPCC document and the latest report of the United Nations Environment Program, published in September 2020, have an impact. Food loss and waste, which account for 8% of all global emissions, could cut emissions by 4.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide per year.
In addition, if we want to eat an environmentally healthy diet, it is best to choose local and seasonal foods, since this way we avoid GHG emissions associated with transportation . It does not make much sense to stop eating meat if doing so increases, for example, the consumption of soy imported from the other side of the world or grown in areas where illegal deforestation has occurred.
