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 >
Red Meat
According to USGS, it takes about 460 gallons of water to make 1/4 pound of steak. This is a lot of resources being put into a cow to get meat. Also, cows produce lots of methane to the atmosphere so eating red meat isn't ideal for the environment. I like hamburgers a lot, but the amount of resources cows need and the methane they release to the atmosphere isn't worth it. We should cut down on our intake of red meat because it is harmful to the environment.
I totally agree with you, Santos. One option for reducing your consumption of red meat is to try plant-based foods. Companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat work really hard to make burgers that are made entirely from plants but have the same taste, texture, color, protein, calories, and even the same grilling sound as meat burgers. These burgers taste the same as meat burgers. They are also better for our health. Many athletes have switched to plant-based diets and reported better performance. Finally, they are much better for the environment. Livestock farming creates the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as all the planes, cars, trucks, and boats combined. We get all our energy from plants anyway because animals like cows get their energy from plants so eating meat is just a more inefficient transfer of that energy. As you said, beef is also much less water efficient. As a visual for this, with the amount of water in the average backyard pool, you could make about 24 burger patties. With that same amount of water, you could make 75 loaves of bread and 30 jars of peanut butter. So if you made a peanut butter sandwich, which has about the same amount of protein and calories as a burger, and had that twice a day, the meat would last a little more than a week and the patties would last a little over a year. We could have enough food for 3.5 billion more people if we all just ate the same plants that we fed to livestock.
I agree red meats, especially beef is not sustainable for the environment. Personally, I along with members of my family have decided to cut out beef from our diet. Along with health benefits, I have also learned that producing beef takes a significant tole on the environment. According to PETA, while raising cows, farms produce 500 million tons of cow waste a year which creates runoff that pollutes rivers with excess nitrates. Additionally, the production of beef requires a lot of land to feed the cows for example since 1970 almost 90% of the Amazon has been cleared for grazing livestock. While I agree with you that meat alternatives are better for the environment, there are still some cons. Some disadvantages that come with alternative meat are that some use refined oils which are not great for your health. My question is what can be done to improve alternative meat that upholds good nutrition while still bettering our environment?
Source 1: https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-use … vironment/
Source 2: https://foodrevolution.org/blog/plant-b … ernatives/