Huge reductions in meat-eating are essential to avoid dangerous climate change, according to the most comprehensive analysis yet of the food system’s impact on the environment. In western countries, beef consumption needs to fall by 90% and be replaced by five times more beans and pulses.
Covid-19 is a preview of how effective individual choice is in tackling earth spanning problems.
Honestly you can flip this on its head and it still works - “climate change will lead to a 90% reduction in meat eating”. Beef in particular will become so expensive to produce that it will be a luxury item. The media has already been seeding the “in the future we might eat bugs for protein” idea for many years, you see those articles pop up in the news now and again (like beans don’t exist lol).
It’ll be so funny watching the triggered meat fetishists melt down when they can’t afford their lifestyle anymore lol
i’m doing my part
Classic guardian - blaming the individual.
So what if people reduced their meat consumption. Yes it’s a good step, but it’s not going to end factory farming, it’s not going to solve climate change. This is a market solution to a problem that can’t be solved under capitalism.
On the other hand, even if capitalism disappeared overnight, demand for meat in the West would remain relatively stable. Education would likely take decades to produce results, and we simply don’t have that much time.
I think we really need to abandon this crutch of reflexively assuming socialism will magically solve our problems and instead think about exactly hows socialism will do so.
On the other hand, even if capitalism disappeared overnight, demand for meat in the West would remain relatively stable. Education would likely take decades to produce results, and we simply don’t have that much time.
There is plenty of demand for affordable housing, healthcare and education but no we have to have massively subsidized meat among other shitty things. Omnis will get pissed and throw their tantrums but the coming break down of the food system will teach people how much more efficient it is to live off grains.
I think the article (and the study it’s based on) are more concerned with what needs to be done, rather than how it should be done. I’m pretty sure most people involved with this research understand that leaving it purely up to individual choice is a lost cause, and that government intervention will be required. Relevant quote from one of the authors of the study:
All the diet and farming options are already being implemented in somewhere in the world, said Springmann. In the Netherlands and Israel, fertilisers and water are being better used, while big cuts in meat consumption are being seen among young people in some cities.
But a global change is needed, he said: “I think we can do it, but we really need much more proactive governments to provide the right framework. People can make a personal difference by changing their diet, but also by knocking on the doors of their politicians and saying we need better environmental regulations – that is also very important. Do not let politicians off the hook.”
