Is Veganism Really the Answer?
Hiya!
This month I tackled plant-based diets and the meat industry. I’ve moved between vegetarian and vegan diets my whole adult life and felt it was high time to dive deep into the emissions impact of the meat industry and uncover whether going vegan is actually a viable solution to the climate crisis. As always, below you can find my latest video, alongside three quotes and three links I found helpful during my research. Hope you find them illuminating.
Three Quotes:
“Beef has an energy efficiency of about 2%. This means that for every 100 kilocalories you feed a cow, you only get 2 kilocalories of beef back.”
— Our World in Data
“According to the analysis, a switch to veganism could save almost 8bn tonnes of CO2e a year by 2050, when compared to a “business-as-usual” scenario. (By comparison, all food production currently causes around 13.7bn tonnes of CO2e a year.) The steep reduction in emissions would partially stem from the freeing up of large amounts of land, which could be used to plant forests capable of removing CO2 from the atmosphere”
— Carbon Brief
“Records compiled by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reveal that, on average, there are at least 17 “severe” incidents a month in US meat plants. These injuries are classified as those involving “hospitalisations, amputations or loss of an eye”. Amputations happen on average twice a week, according to the data. There were 270 incidents in a 31-month period spanning 2015 to 2017, according to the OSHA figures. Most of the incidents involved the amputation of fingers or fingertips, but there were recordings of lost hands, arms or toes.”
— The Guardian
Three Links:
Animal Agriculture Is Dangerous Work. The People Who Do It Have Few Protections. (Civil Eats)
Less meat is nearly always better than sustainable meat, to reduce your carbon footprint (Our World in Data)
Interactive: What is the climate impact of eating meat and dairy? (Carbon Brief)
Hope you have a wonderful weekend,
Charlie