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Urgent Need to Reduce Meat and Dairy Consumption to Meet Climate Targets, Says Expert

posted by chromas on Tuesday November 27 2018, @11:23PM   
from the beat-it,-don't-eat-it dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

Dr. Helen Harwatt, farmed animal law and policy fellow at Harvard Law School, advises that getting protein from plant sources instead of animal sources would drastically help in meeting climate targets and reduce the risk of overshooting temperature goals.

For the first time, Dr. Harwatt proposes a three-step strategy to gradually replace animal proteins with plant-sourced proteins, as part of the commitment to mitigate climate change. These are:

1) Acknowledging that current numbers of livestock are at their peak and will need to decline ('peak livestock').

2) Set targets to transition away from livestock products starting with foods linked with the highest greenhouse gas emissions such as beef, then cow's milk and pig meat ('worst-first' approach).

3) Assessing suitable replacement products against a range of criteria including greenhouse gas emission targets, land usage, and public health benefits ('best available food' approach).

Harwatt further elaborates that recent evidence shows, in comparison with the current food system, switching from animals to plants proteins, could potentially feed an additional 350 million people in the US alone.

You can eat plants or insects, but not meat.

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Original Submission

• Re:Over. My. Dead. Body Re:Over. My. Dead. Body (Score: 1) by Sulla on Wednesday November 28 2018, @04:00AM (5 children)

  by Sulla (5173) on Wednesday November 28 2018, @04:00AM (#767190) Journal

  Anyone in the US making more than 35k/year is in the top 1% of the world.

  --
  Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam

  Parent

• Re:Over. My. Dead. Body Re:Over. My. Dead. Body (Score: 5, Insightful) by NewNic on Wednesday November 28 2018, @05:24AM (4 children)

  by NewNic (6420) on Wednesday November 28 2018, @05:24AM (#767215) Journal

  Anyone in the US making more than 35k/year is in the top 1% of the world.

  Now adjust that for cost of living.

  --
  lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory

  Parent

  • Re:Over. My. Dead. Body Re:Over. My. Dead. Body (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 28 2018, @06:17AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 28 2018, @06:17AM (#767232)

    How else can Sulla give us our first world guilt? The irony is amusing.

    Parent

    • Re:Over. My. Dead. Body Re:Over. My. Dead. Body (Score: 1, Disagree) by Sulla on Wednesday November 28 2018, @05:54PM (2 children)

      by Sulla (5173) on Wednesday November 28 2018, @05:54PM (#767382) Journal

      My comment was supposed to be taken a little different. All of these folks decry the 1% and claim the 1% should carry the world burden, yet they themselves are part of that 1% and wont acknowledge it.

      --
      Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam

      Parent

      • Re:Over. My. Dead. Body (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 28 2018, @09:37PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 28 2018, @09:37PM (#767515)

        Because that's a complete and absolute straw man, and you know it. When they talk about the 1%, they aren't talking about the global 1%.

        Parent

      • Re:Over. My. Dead. Body (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 28 2018, @11:04PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 28 2018, @11:04PM (#767555)

        Now adjust that for cost of living.

        Parent