What did you learn about dietary choices from using the footprint calculator? Now imagine that you could translate what you learned into an effective societal policy on food- what would it be? And how would this policy effect the need to alleviate world hunger?
925 million people on earth do not have enough to eat according to the FAO [Food and Agricultural Organization]. That's almost 1 in 7 inhabitants of our planet!
Food & Hunger >
Vegetarian Diet
By restricting our consumption of animal products, we can help reduce our carbon footprints. According to an article titled, “Going Vegetarian Can Cut Your Food Carbon Footprint in Half,” (https://www.vox.com/2014/7/2/5865109/st … nt-in-half) 25% of all greenhouse gas emissions are direct effects of food production. In a Business Insider article titled, “We Are Killing the Environment One Hamburger at a Time,” the author states, “The Animals study tallies conventional beef's total carbon footprint at 15,989,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per billion kilograms of beef. That comes out to about 4 pounds of greenhouse gases per quarter pound of beef.” An average hamburger has about 0.375 pounds of ground beef. Since the amount of greenhouse gas produced in beef production was so high, I was shocked to find that Americans alone consume about 50 billion burgers per year. (https://vinepair.com/cocktail-chatter/h … -per-year/). It’s no wonder why the food production industry has such an e normous carbon footprint. Meat, especially beef, has a much greater carbon footprint compared to fruits and vegetables. A diet consisting of plant-based foods is proven to have far less of a negative environmental impact. Other protein sources, such as lentils and tofu, have significantly smaller carbon footprints. There are also many health benefits that come with being vegetarian or vegan. For example, vegetarians tend to have lower cholesterol levels than those who eat meat. Vegetarians/vegans also have a lower risk of various health problems such as obesity, hypertension, and the development of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
I respect your opinion on restricting our consumption of animal products as it relates to reducing our carbon footprint. What is even more troubling is that methane levels have doubled worldwide in less than 10 years! Also, in the United States, 42 percent of agricultural emissions come from animal agriculture. From my own personal observations I must say that whenever I pass the huge cattle ranches along Interstate 5 in California I have noticed that the air appears thicker and even hotter (as well as stinkier) compared to other stretches of Interstate 5. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/clim … rming.html