Trying to blame ranchers for alleged climate change and continuing to pressure people in the process Reduce meat consumption, they already have a new headquarters studio.This is research from the University of Vermont and was recently published in the journal Nature Communications. According to this study, Replace half of your meat and dairy with plant-based alternatives By 2050, “greenhouse gas emissions related to agriculture and land use could be reduced by 31% and forest degradation halted.” But who is behind the research?
According to the study, reforestation of land “freed from livestock production” “could provide additional benefits to humans” when meat and dairy are replaced by plant-based alternatives. climate and biodiversityThis would more than double climate benefits and halve future declines in ecosystem integrity between now and 2050. “
“We need more than just ‘Meatless Mondays’ to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change, and this study points the way forward,” said study co-author Eva Wallenberg. bells “Meatless Monday” This is an initiative launched in 2003 by US advertising and marketing industry executive Sidney Lerner in conjunction with the Johns Hopkins Center, and as its name suggests, recommends eliminating at least one day a week Meat consumption.
In addition to expanding a measure invented by North American governments during World War II first world war To help combat the shortage, it should be noted that study co-author Eva Wollenberg works at the Biodiversity Alliance and the Gund Institute on climate change, food systems and sustainable agriculture The work of both organizations, which aim to transform the current food system, raises many doubts about the objectivity of the report’s conclusions.
The study’s lead author is Marta Kozicka, a researcher in the Integrated Biosphere Futures (IBF) research group at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). He assured that “understanding the impact of dietary changes can expand our options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions”, insisting that “change diet “It could also mean huge improvements in biodiversity.”
The report concludes that reducing global meat and dairy consumption by 50% would “significantly reduce the growing impact of food systems on the natural environment by 2050”. What products can replace meat and dairy? Here’s where the report’s third contributor comes in: Yoimpossible foodone of the largest manufacturers of lab-grown meat.
impossible food
The authors created a variety of diets based on plant products that were “nutritionally comparable to protein products of animal origin.” To do this, they asked Impossible Foods, the company that created “impossible burger”, its revenue has quadrupled in the past four years to 9.3 billion euros (these figures are estimates because the company is not listed on the stock market and its accounts are not publicly accessible).
Public figures such as Impossible Foods are among Impossible Foods’ investors. Bill Gates, peter jackson, Jay Z, Serena Williams, Katy Perry or Jaden Smith. It is also backed by Coatue Management (a US investment management firm), Temasek (a Singaporean government-owned investment company), Horizons Ventures (Singapore’s private investment arm) and others. Li Ka-shingone of the richest people in Asia), Mirae Asset (a Seoul-based financial services group) or Khosla Ventures (an American venture capital firm).
The company is responsible for providing the common formulas for the plant-based meat alternative products used in the report. The authors stated, “The scientific team had full control of decisions for this peer-reviewed study, and the data are not specific to Impossible Foods.”
Anyway, co-author Warren Berg is Strong defender of lab-grown meat and ensuring that “they are not just a novel food, but a decisive opportunity to achieve food security and climate goals while achieving health and biodiversity goals around the world.”
controversial figures
According to Wallenberg, “the food industry produces approx. One-third of global greenhouse gas emissionsDecarbonization is notoriously difficult. ” Although the authors don’t specify, this figure includes not only the emissions produced by dairy cows, but also transportation, the industrial process of meat conversion, and the energy consumed in them.
The percentage also varies by region. For example, The EU figure is 11.55% Greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural activities as a whole (livestock and agriculture). This is a far cry from the 33% thought by the authors, who also acknowledge that “the main impact on agricultural input use occurs in China, with the main impact on environmental outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa and South America.”
result
According to the study, if the world’s population halved their meat and dairy consumption, Agricultural area will decrease by 12% The decline in forest area has almost completely stopped. “The full environmental benefits of dietary changes can be realized if agricultural land saved for livestock and feed production is reclaimed through biodiversity-oriented afforestation.”
What the report doesn’t explain is how to feed the population by growing the same amount of crops but cutting livestock farming in half. How do low- and middle-income people pay for this? Average cost 100 euros Half a kilogram of lab meat.
Quite the opposite.The study noted that “global malnutrition rates would fall to 3.6%, compared with 3.8% in the reference scenario, meaning 31 million fewer people are undernourished.
“While the dietary changes analyzed are powerful tools for achieving climate and biodiversity goals, they must be complemented by specific production policies to realize their full potential. Otherwise, these benefits will be offset by the expansion of production and Partial loss. “There is a consequent loss of greenhouse gases and a loss of land use efficiency,” explains Petr Havlík, director of IIASA’s Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program.