Does Eating Meat Matter?
Confronting the climate crisis relies on actions at all levels - from the individual to the nation-state and global community. The people of many countries and cultures inlcude meat in their diets. Reducing meat consumption could have a positive impact on climate change. Should UN negotiators include this issue? Should communities, organizations, and governments put meat consumption on their climate policy agendas? Here is an article from The Guardian that addresses this issue.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/18/bewildering-to-omit-meat-eating-reduction-from-un-climate-plan?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Absolutely, communities and governments need to address meat consumption as part of climate change solutions. Just like me, many people are taking action. I've personally cut red meat entirely from my diet and focus on chicken when I do eat meat. Now I was not aware of the impact eating red meat had on the environment, I just know that it got far too expensive! Though I am glad what I chose as default does have much less of an impact.
ReplyDeleteChange requires more than just individual choices. The public needs to understand the incredible potential of vegetables. It's not just about "eating your veggies" anymore. We need to highlight the specific health benefits! Many vegetables are powerhouses of essential vitamins that can help prevent a variety of diseases. Imagine knowing that broccoli can boost your vitamin C for immunity or that spinach packs a punch of iron to fight fatigue. By promoting this knowledge we can empower people to make informed choices about their health and the planet. This, alongside policy changes and education efforts, can create a powerful movement towards a more sustainable future.
Here is a website I found very informing! It goes over how every day foods are directly impacting the environment and how we can improve out diet to make less of an environmental impact. https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/food
I believe that, despite the relatively large impact of the meat industry on global warming and resource consumption, there are also many other impactful ways to slow down the deterioration of the planet. For one, limiting carbon emissions by riding bikes or scooters or taking public transit instead of driving. Not engaging in activities that have been shown to impact the earth fast, such as long cruises, which not only harm reefs but also can disrupt local economies. Other small everyday things that can help is buying produce not wrapped in plastic, using reusable bags, wearing reef safe sunscreen in the ocean, and not contributing to overconsumption by purchasing every new gadget, trinket, or clothing item currently trending. Although I do firmly believe that the meat industry is not healthy for the climate, there are a lot of flaws with the idea of entirely cutting out meat from human diets, including not being equitable for every social class. It really isn't feasible to expect impoverished people to change their diet when it can be very expensive. I have attached a link which describes the cost discrepancies for a balanced meatless diet vs. a meat diet. https://midanmarketing.com/blog/meatless-diet-a-privilege-only-some-can-afford/
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, I think that the issues that have a bigger impact on global warming as a whole should be discussed before the smaller things. I also agree when you say that there are definitely different socioeconomic factors in the world that could influence people to eat meat. Just like you said, it is very impractical to assume someone without the resources to make a "no-meat diet" can change their entire diet. While I am aware of the slow but obvious affects on climate change that consistently eating meat has, issues such as transportation, flights, even oil should be discussed and prompted first.
DeletePersonally, I believe eating meat is affecting and is fueling the climate crisis. "Shifting diets from meat and other animal products to plant-based diets has a high potential for reducing carbon footprints and mitigating climate change, as well as improving human health, according to Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, a report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change." (PCRM). This quote states that if we cut down meat intake and switch our diet, we can cut down the carbon footprint and help reduce climate change. Pysicians Committee is stating that a shift to a plant-based diet could reduce greenhouse gases by 10% and 70% by 2050. This would help drastically, but it will be very difficult. Everyone has different views on meat, and becoming a vegan. So, it may be a difficult task to globally cut down meat production especially since this is a job for people to maintain a successful life. "Plant-based alternatives to beef have the potential to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but their growth in popularity could disrupt the agricultural workforce, threatening more than 1.5 million industry jobs, new economic models show." (Cornell University). Cutting beef and meat will affect jobs even if it's helping our ecosystem. So, what would you do?
ReplyDeleteI personally believe eating meat does impact the environment but trying to cut meat out from people's diets is almost impossible. However, it would be much better for the planet if mass farming is slowed down and lessened, as it emits large amounts of Co2. There are countless problems with the way we are farming these days, it causes deforestation, thousands of mistreated animals, chemical use which is detrimental to animals and the planet, they take up more resources than they provide, and all around just ruins our climate. If we can switch to plant based meat that tastes exactly like the normal product I believe our government could phase out mass animal farming and replace meat with a healthier and more environmentally friendly product we could lower emission rates. We should stop buying from factory farms and only buy from local farmers who treat animals well, don't use antibiotics, and aren't overproducing their products. Here is a great article on how you can help farmed animals and in turn help our environment: https://awionline.org/content/5-ways-you-can-help-farm-animals
ReplyDeleteAt first, I did not understand why encouraging people to stop eating meat would improve the environment. According to CookUnity, 22% of the world's population does not eat meat. That still means that 88% of the entire world has meat in their everyday diets. I believe that meat is harmful and pushes the climate change but I also believe that it is unachievable and unattainable. So because of this, I also believe that doing other things such as limiting carbon emissions by traveling with walking, biking, or carpooling are much more achievable and attainable.
ReplyDeleteI think that while eating meat might not be the only solution to confronting the climate crisis, it's an extremely important one to consider. The fact that animal farming "produces 12%-20% of total global greenhouse gas emissions" is very alarming, and in my opinion, is enough to at least consider enforcing regulations on. It's hard to know of the logistics of reducing meat consumption globally, but I believe that it should be advocated for regardless of whether it's enforced or not.
ReplyDeleteI was forced to be vegetarian from when I was born till I reached college due to my parents, but in my opinion it was not terrible without meat in my diet. Reducing meat consumption is a well-documented method to lower greenhouse gas emissions and promote better health, especially in wealthy nations where meat consumption is excessively high. The problem with the hope to lower meat consumption is generally having a meatless diet is more expensive and contains less of the basic needs in protein that you get from meat. This can be hard to give alternatives as locations with higher rates of poverty have no choice but to eat cheap meats, while wealthier countries choose meat because of its rich taste. The clear solution would need to be an alternative such as plant based meats that have the same nutritional benefits, along with a reduced ban on meat to produce less meat while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions as long as the plant based meats can persuade people into switching.
ReplyDeleteI personally think that as far as meat eating goes, compared to other environmental pollutants, it really isn't that important. Big corporations pump so much smog and CO2 into the atmosphere, and people choosing not to eat meat won't affect that. There are a lot bigger environmental concerns the UN should be focusing on. Here's a Stanford research study on the issue I found interesting: https://woods.stanford.edu/news/meats-environmental-impact
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