Changing Diets
The world’s richest nations eat richer meals. Over the last 75 years, our expectations for meals have increased with much more meat and dairy in our diets.
Many people over the years, have become aware that what we eat not only affects our personal health, but also, indirectly, the health of the environment. Also, as countries have become richer, people have shifted from primarily plant-based diets to eating more animal products, which in turn has changed how we use crops.
One obvious way to feed more people is to grow more food but the intensification of crop production won’t meet our future needs. Instead, we need to find ways to change our diets to feed more people, while also keeping us healthy.
Croplands and pasture are, by far, the largest human use of land worldwide. While much of the crops currently being grown are for people, the majority is used to feed animals, or make fuel.
When we feed animals crops, we lose a lot of the energy (calories) in those crops. The animal uses its feed to do what all animals do, such as grow and move. Compared to eating plant-based foods, getting calories from animals is much less efficient.
This conversion rate is why diets will dictate how much crops we’ll need to produce in the future. As we eat diets heavier in meat and dairy, we indirectly demand much more land for feed crops. Put simply the more feed an animal eats, the more land is required to grow the feed.
The kinds of meat and dairy we choose to eat, and how much, greatly affect the greenhouse gas emissions from our diets and simply shifting from one kind of meat to another can dramatically reduce the impact of our diet on the environment. For example, cattle convert just 3 percent of the calories they consume in feed to edible beef, but 40 percent of calories dairy cows consume are delivered to us in the milk we drink.
Compared to animal-based foods, plant-based foods have lower greenhouse gas emissions. Animals need more feed crops, which means more emissions from fertiliser and transportation. If forests or savannas are cleared for agriculture, carbon dioxide is emitted, and these trees and grasses are lost. Over their lifetime, cows and goats also emit gas themselves.
Dietary changes don’t have to be extreme to considerably reduce the impact on the environment. Meat like beef that requires a lot of energy to produce, can have up to 250 times the emissions of a plant-based protein like peas, pulses and beans. Emissions from producing eggs, dairy, poultry, and pork, are much lower than emissions from beef or lamb.
However, the way that plant-based foods are grown, also greatly affects their greenhouse gas emissions. For example, because rice is grown in submerged rice fields, a lot of methane is produced from fermentation of the organic matter in the wetlands; therefore, emissions from rice can be five times greater than growing the equivalent calories of wheat.
Conclusion
We like what we like and have got used to the food that we eat. There is an expectation from us that the food we eat will be produced for us. When it comes to food, we don’t usually think about the health aspect, and how what we eat will affect us in terms of our lifespan.
But food and lifespan go hand in hand. The more animal products we consume the shorter lifespan we will have. Meat products also contribute to calcium loss. Women going through the menopause will already be prone to reduced calcium, so eating meat products can add to that.
In terms of the environment, however, animals like ourselves are part of the same eco-system and they need to live for us to sustain our own longevity. Although we don’t often think about or change our diets, if all of us changed, a small percentage it would help the human species survive.
As the World Wildlife Fund have said (Source: ‘WWF’) our planet is in trouble. That means the human species and the natural world are also in trouble. As an integral part of the ecosystem, helping the planet’s ecosystem helps us, which helps future generations. Therefore, it is important to eat smaller portions of meat and replace meat meals with plant based meals.
We need to be reducing greenhouse gas emissions that is important to us sustaining the planet. Let’s do this…
Source: http://www.environmentreports.com
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