• empireOfLove@lemmy.one
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    18
    ·
    1 year ago

    Don’t just single out meat. All of industrialized agriculture is massively carbon and energy intensive and built on gradual topsoil depletion.

    • Nora@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      28
      ·
      1 year ago

      Meat industry is responsible for most of the farmland. If everyone was vegan we could reduce the amount of farmland we use by like 70%. Thermodynamics says its better to eat plants instead of feeding them to animals and eating animals.

      • power@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Biology teachers when them teaching the 10 percent law for ecological efficiency to their class 5 years ago is actually useful

    • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      Transitioning to plant-based diets (PBDs) has the potential to reduce diet-related land use by 76%, diet-related greenhouse gas emissions by 49%, eutrophication by 49%, and green and blue water use by 21% and 14%, respectively, whilst garnering substantial health co-benefits

      […]

      Plant-based foods have a significantly smaller footprint on the environment than animal-based foods. Even the least sustainable vegetables and cereals cause less environmental harm than the lowest impact meat and dairy products [9].

      https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/8/1614/htm

      If I source my beef or lamb from low-impact producers, could they have a lower footprint than plant-based alternatives? The evidence suggests, no: plant-based foods emit fewer greenhouse gases than meat and dairy, regardless of how they are produced.

      […]

      Plant-based protein sources – tofu, beans, peas and nuts – have the lowest carbon footprint. This is certainly true when you compare average emissions. But it’s still true when you compare the extremes: there’s not much overlap in emissions between the worst producers of plant proteins, and the best producers of meat and dairy.

      https://ourworldindata.org/less-meat-or-sustainable-meat