Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie

Author:Hannah Ritchie [RITCHIE, HANNAH]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2024-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

(2) Eat less meat, especially beef and lamb

You’ve already seen this recommendation.

Chapter 3 looked at some of the climate impacts of different foods. The carbon footprint of meat – especially beef and lamb – really stood out. But it’s not just about climate change. Because food plays such a big role across many environmental issues, this single change has many positive spillovers. Whether it’s greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water use, or water pollution,ix the hierarchy is nearly always the same: beef and lamb are the worst, followed by dairy, pork, chicken, then plant-based foods such as tofu, peas, beans and cereals. This is true whether we compare them in kilograms, calories or protein. The differences here are not small. It’s not like we’re splitting hairs over using 100 metres squared of farmland rather than 99. It’s the difference between using 100 metres squared or 1. Literally 100 times the difference.

So, once again the biggest thing we can do is to eat less meat and dairy. If we want to really change things at scale we need lots of people to get on board. We would cut emissions, land use and water use by much more if half the population went meat-free two days a week than we would from increasing veganism by a few per cent.

Most people aren’t going to change if they’re offered an all-or-nothing alternative. One of the worst ways to get someone to reduce their meat consumption is to tell them to go vegan. It just doesn’t work. We need to make it simple and enjoyable for people to cut back a bit. That might be Meatless Mondays or meat-free lunches. Often people dip their toes into the water of a more plant-based diet and find it’s easier than expected.

But it’s not just how much meat and dairy we eat that matters. It’s also what types. We can have a massive impact by simply switching one type of meat for another. If you’re a big beef eater then replacing some of your weekly intake with chicken or fish is the biggest thing you can do. In fact, that change makes much more of a difference than a chicken eater going vegetarian.

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