Honestly, if we just stopped meat production that would pretty much be it for emission reductions from diet. Plant-based stuff is so efficient by comparison it hardly even matters.
Processing and transport is actually a relatively tiny portion of emissions. Take a look at the graphic - on most of them you can’t even see the bit representing transport. Eliminating any and all meat production is way more impactful than any finessing you can do with crops.
To be clear, industrial agriculture can and should be done in a more sustainable manner. Crop rotation, cover crops, ‘striping’ fields with wild space, field rotation, etc. There’s gains to be made there, they’re just quite small compared to literally any improvements in animal ag.
With slow progress, such as starting with beef: the ‘steak dinner’ needs to gradually disappear. Or we get to a point with lab grown meat that it becomes indistinguishable, and real meat becomes the black market meal of the filthy rich, or the disgust of eating a real living animal becomes strong in the mindset of the people.
Disclaimer: I do eat meat but I do make a point of not eating beef and pork dishes if I can.
Well done. Just cutting out beef is one of the most impactful things you can do WRT your diet. I’ve often thought we need to coin a new term for doing so. There’s ‘reducetarian’ but it doesn’t really have a strong usage.
Honestly, if we just stopped meat production that would pretty much be it for emission reductions from diet. Plant-based stuff is so efficient by comparison it hardly even matters.
No, not with modern agriculture. Lot of fertilizer and pesticides and processing and transportation that produce lots of emissions.
Processing and transport is actually a relatively tiny portion of emissions. Take a look at the graphic - on most of them you can’t even see the bit representing transport. Eliminating any and all meat production is way more impactful than any finessing you can do with crops.
To be clear, industrial agriculture can and should be done in a more sustainable manner. Crop rotation, cover crops, ‘striping’ fields with wild space, field rotation, etc. There’s gains to be made there, they’re just quite small compared to literally any improvements in animal ag.
With slow progress, such as starting with beef: the ‘steak dinner’ needs to gradually disappear. Or we get to a point with lab grown meat that it becomes indistinguishable, and real meat becomes the black market meal of the filthy rich, or the disgust of eating a real living animal becomes strong in the mindset of the people.
Disclaimer: I do eat meat but I do make a point of not eating beef and pork dishes if I can.
Well done. Just cutting out beef is one of the most impactful things you can do WRT your diet. I’ve often thought we need to coin a new term for doing so. There’s ‘reducetarian’ but it doesn’t really have a strong usage.