this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2023
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[–] blanketswithsmallpox@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

While I agree land use matters to a degree, beef is a much worse producer of CO2 per KG of food consumed compared to cheese, or even 'dairy' like people think of as eggs and milk.

There's been a lot of disingenuous greenwashing around here lately for absolutely no reason. Here's the actual Nature study.

What can you as a consumer genuinely do that WILL make a difference? Vote progressive or as left as you can which will actually win. Research and invest in new technologies that help with lab meats and alternatives.

Everything else is just helping your conscience, treat it as such. Not as some little blow to big AG. They're the ones investing in these alternatives anyway lol. You're patting yourself on the back for giving your money to the same dude in a trenchcoat vs coveralls. Every little bit helps in a wave, but unless they hit tipping points, then understand the real reason why you're doing the things you do. It's to let you sleep easier at night, which is a good thing to strive for.

Since I'm lazy I'm just going to repost my comment from last time.

You can see from the graphs that the smaller animals don't matter. It's per kg of consumed food per kg of CO2.

That also means that meats which are more nutrient rich and bioavailable are often as good as plant alternatives. This only gets better with time and eventual lab grown alternatives.

Altering diets for husbandry has made huge strides in lowering emissions too.

Vegans can Doomer emissions as much as they want to but it's already solved lol. The market will get there just like every other green intiative because turns out people and money DOES care about the future.

The biggest issue with eating meat currently is their shit poor living conditions and treatment. Even separating calves early for dairy isn't nearly as bad for yields as people previously thought too. Like any industry it takes time to make change.

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-10-foods-with-the-biggest-environmental-footprint-2015-9

https://www.eenews.net/articles/changing-cows-diets-could-curb-emissions-will-farmers-dig-in/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/29/mums-ask-when-cows-and-their-calves-separated-rise-ethical-milk-vegan