Changing eating habits to save the planet

Monday, 31 March, 2014

Switching to renewable energy and electric vehicles might not be enough to save the planet. In the future, being green may also involve eating less red meat and dairy.

According to Swedish researchers, changing our eating habits is imperative if we are to meet the UN climate change target of limiting global warming to 2°C.

Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden have found that eliminating emissions from the energy and transportation sectors would not guarantee that we stay below the UN limit. They say that failure to address emissions from global meat and dairy production will make meeting the climate target essentially impossible.

“We have shown that reducing meat and dairy consumption is key to bringing agricultural climate pollution down to safe levels,” said Fredrik Hedenus, one of the study authors.

“Broad dietary change can take a long time. We should already be thinking about how we can make our food more climate-friendly.”

As our population grows - and with it the number of people who eat meat and dairy products - emissions from the production of meat and dairy will increase, the researchers say.

“These emissions can be reduced with efficiency gains in meat and dairy production, as well as with the aid of new technology,” said co-author Stefan Wirsenius.

“But the potential reductions from these measures are fairly limited and will probably not suffice to keep us within the climate limit, if meat and dairy consumption continue to grow.”

Relative to the energy they provide, beef and lamb account for the greatest amount of agricultural emissions. By 2050, estimates indicate that beef and lamb will account for half of all agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, while only contributing 3% of human calorie intake. Cheese and other dairy products will account for about a quarter of total agricultural climate pollution

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