Is eating meat bad for the environment?

It's time to unpack our meat-filled suitcase with an interactive article by Carbon Brief. They've provided an overview of the climate impact of eating meat and dairy.

Let's start with this graph and then review some key takeaways from the article. You can click the image to see the full thing; this is a snippet from a chart of food and its corresponding emissions.

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You'll learn that:

• 🥩 Beef is SOOOO much worse than the other stuff. This is good news if you love eating meat but you're okay giving up just one type. Beef leads to deforestation, takes up a ton of land, releases methane which is 28-34x more powerful than CO2 (cow farts lol) — basically a major yikes for emissions and climate change.
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• 🦐 The way things are farmed matters. The chart shows that farmed prawns have a larger climate impact than other types of seafood, for example. This is because industrial-scale aquaculture creates waste and greenhouse gas emissions.
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• 🌎 Food production takes up half of the planet’s habitable surface. Ok friends, seriously, we all have our favorite foods, but imagine making more space for humans instead of beef cows. We could frolick forever on our livable planet. (Bad news: coffee is damaging. Cue tears.)
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• 💪 Good news: even small shifts make huge differences. A global shift to a flexitarian diet (replacing 3/4ths of meat and dairy with plant-based alternatives) could save over 5 billion tons of CO2 emissions! This means that we can all find paths to sustainable eating that work for us, our financial situations, where we live in the world, etc.
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• 🍽️ Local meat eating doesn't do a whole lot. We DO want you to support your local butcher if you're grabbing some meat, but we vastly overestimate how "good" eating local is for the environment, compared to not eating meat/high-emissions foods. It helps, certainly, but emissions are WAY more influenced by food type vs. food travel. Let's emphasize that local is always important, just in this case, not as impactful as some of us might think. Basically, cut out beef, and go local for your other meats. When you are celebrating a special occasion that calls for beefery, shop in your community.
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If you have more questions on this knowledge gathering section, block some time off to read the whole Carbon Brief article. We're gearing up for the fight against cow farts.

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We just learned that beef is basically the worst food for the climate. Why, though?This 4-minute video explains it all.

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Here are three key things that make beef production so destructive:

• 🐄 Beef is bad because of enteric fermentation. This is the digestion process specific to cows and sheep, and the output is methane farts (5%) and burps (95%). Enteric fermentation outputs more methane emissions than what we see from burning fossil fuels! In other words, we're being betrayed by cow burps.
• 🌾 Beef is also bad because of land use emissions. The land developed for humanity's purposes has skyrocketed since the 1700s but an ABSURDLY small amount of it is actually for our cities, housing, and other living infrastructure. MOST of our land is for agriculture. Within agriculture, a majority is for... grazing. So, are cows eating our civilization? 🤷‍♀️
• 🌳 Cropland = deforestation. We're getting rid of forests and trees to make way for cows to graze. 80% of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest is to make way for cattle ranching.
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All in all, beef is terribly expensive, and we're paying for it with the future of the Earth. There are so many alternatives to beef-eating as the first step to a more sustainable diet, and we'll explore those next.

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The one simple action you can take now is to cut out beef.

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Previously, we showed you what to give up next — if you’re already a vegan, for example, you can focus on dark chocolate/coffee, or you can shift your energy to something other than food. (Like having conversations with friends and family, which is the most important thing we can do to heal the climate crisis!)

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The goal is to shift to planet-friendly food that makes us feel good. Of course, there is SO much nuance when we talk about food and we have to find what works for us + create structural change. Here's a starting point: 

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1. Go plant-based.
Cutting out beef (and dairy) is a great place to start, but if you think it's something you can work on, try going fully plant-based! There are zillions of recipes to try online, and you can also think about cuisines that are plant-based without necessarily marketing themselves that way. For example, so much Indian food is vegetarian and even vegan, but you wouldn’t go out of your way to describe it as such.
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2. Donate $20 to end factory farming.
CIWF, or Compassion in World Farming, has a track record of getting policy and institutional change passed to increase animal welfare and decrease CO2 emissions. Set up a recurring donation for maximum impact.
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3. Make your pets do the work.
Here’s your chance to make someone else work hard on your behalf. Get your pets to go beef/meat-free if you need some more time. For dogs, check out our affiliate link with A Pup Above and select the chicken option. You can get 15% off with SOAPBOX15. Jiminy's also has healthy cricket protein-based food for pets and a bunch of cool facts on how sustainable cricket protein is.

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Which actions are you committing to?

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Before we go any further, it's time for you to pledge your commitment. It takes less than 30 seconds to pledge and we can bother you about it in a friendly way, so we can hold each other accountable. Pledge here!

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🎯 Action step 4 of 4: REFLECT — what can you commit to? What fresh perspectives can we look at?

Before we go any further, it's time for you to pledge your commitment. It takes less than 30 seconds to pledge and we can bother you about it in a friendly way, so we can hold each other accountable.

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Here are some honorable article mentions before we skip to the... meat 😉

• Native Tradition vs. Militant Veganism (An Indigenous vegan perspective on LakotaLaw.org)
• How America became the red meat republic (Civileats.com on beef and colonialism)
• Slaughterhouse Workers (Human rights abuses in the meat industry from Foodispower.org)

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The winner is from PBS: In Nicaragua, supplying beef comes at a high human cost.

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This 8-minute video and its accompanying transcript were WILD. When thinking about meat and food systems, we should focus on the system as a whole and the human impacts, not just over-anchor on CO2 emissions. It’s time for us to understand what’s been happening in Nicaragua, where meat is literally murder.

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Here's the reality check:

• 🏞️ The problem: The Nicaraguan beef supply chain is DIRTY 🤧 ."People are dying from violent land invasions, their lands taken away for cattle ranching, cattle, which then turns into beef, which comes into United States. Yes, people are being killed."
• 🍔 Why it matters: Nicaragua is going ham on its beef exports. "Nicaragua has become the third largest supplier of frozen beef to the United States. Its imports have reached an all-time high during the pandemic, doubling in just four years."

• ⚫ How bad is it: Whole Indigenous villages are being decimated. According to an Indigenous leader, "In this year, we have more than 10 people in less than seven months murdered already. The settlers, them shot with a gun one girl of 14 years...to create fear."

• 🏛️ What's America doing: lol nothing. According to Republican senator Mike Rounds, "American consumers don't have any inkling as to where their beef comes from today." Basically, regulations are pretty wack because of how powerful the cattle industry is, and executives are turning a blind eye to literal murders in their supply chain.

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We've focused on the environmental impact of meat and how beef is THE WORST in terms of emissions. If you're not convinced, maybe this will do it: Blood Diamond-style beef that’s not always traceable or regulated... think about that from a health perspective.
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If you want to dive deeper, here's a thorough article from Mongabay News on the beef-related human rights and deforestation situation in Nicaragua. If you're feeling bogged down by this reflection, cook yourself a nice plant-based treat from the Minimalist Baker, recommended by one of our readers!

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Happy eating!

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‍🏁 Checkpoint: This is the end of action step 4 of 4: REFLECT.

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Check out our membership community for more resources like free weekly events with social justice experts, sustainable product discounts, pre-written email templates, a social impact job board, and in-person hangouts with new friends. Thanks for taking action with Soapbox Project!