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Reducing Meat and Dairy for a Healthier Life and Planet LESS IS MORE REDUCING MEAT AND DAIRY FOR A HEALTHIER LIFE AND PLANET The Greenpeace vision of the meat and dairy system towards 2050 The Greenpeace vision of the meat and dairy system towards 2050 Foreword This report is based upon “The need already over-consuming meat and milk, to a more detailed technical Foreword the detriment of global human health. These review of the scientific evidence to reduce relating to the environmental Professor Pete Smith levels of consumption are not sustainable. and health implications of the demand for LESS production and consumption We could significantly reduce meat and milk livestock of meat and dairy products: I have been working on the sustainability consumption globally, which would improve Tirado, R., Thompson, K.F., Miller, of agriculture and food systems for over 20 products human health, decrease environmental K.A. & Johnston, P. (2018) Less is more: Reducing meat years, and over this time have been involved is now a impact, help to tackle climate change, and IS MORE and dairy for a healthier life and in hundreds of studies examining how to scientifically feed more people from much less land – REDUCING MEAT AND DAIRY planet - Scientific background reduce the climate impact of agriculture, and perhaps freeing some land for biodiversity on the Greenpeace vision of the how to make the global food system more mainstream conservation. And we do not all need to make FOR A HEALTHIER LIFE meat and dairy system towards sustainable. What I have come to realise over view” the once-and-forever decision to become 2050. Greenpeace Research this period is that our current food system, vegetarian or vegan – reduced consumption AND PLANET Laboratories Technical Report (Review) 03-2018 and its future trajectory, is simply not of meat and milk among people who sustainable, and we need to fundamentally consume “less and better” meat / milk could change the way we produce food if we are have a very significant impact. Edited by: to feed 9-10 billion people in 2050 without Alexandra Dawe wrecking the planet irreversibly. During the 20 or so years I have been researching these issues, I have come to Art Direction, Design and The Greenpeace vision of the The component of the food system that has the unavoidable conclusion that we must Infographics: meat and dairy system towards 2050 the largest single impact, is the production significantly reduce livestock product Christian Tate of livestock to provide products for human Pete Smith is Professor of consumption. This is not driven by a www.christiantate.co.uk consumption. In addition to the large areas Soils and Global Change at vegetarian/vegan ideology, or a zeal to of land that livestock use directly, over 30% the Institute of Biological become an eco-warrior – it is driven entirely Published in March 2018 by of all of the crops we produce globally go and Environmental by the scientific evidence. The need to reduce Greenpeace International into livestock feed. Given that livestock are Sciences at the University demand for livestock products is now a Ottho Heldringstraat 5, 1066 AZ about 10-15% efficient (at best) in converting of Aberdeen (Scotland, scientifically mainstream view. Amsterdam their feed into biomass that we can consume, UK) and Science Director The Netherlands livestock represent a huge efficiency of the Scottish Climate The authors of this report have assembled www.greenpeace.org bottle-neck in the food system. No wonder Change Centre of Expertise the best scientific evidence from published www.greenpeace.org/ then, that livestock products have a water (ClimateXChange). Since reports covering agriculture, food systems, livestock_vision footprint many times greater than crop 1996, he has served as environmental and health research in an products, and that ruminant meat has a Convening Lead Author, objective and balanced fashion. They come to greenhouse gas footprint 100 times that of Lead Author and Author the same conclusion as mainstream science Contents plant-based foods. We are not talking about for the Intergovernmental has come to in recent years – the current and percentages here – we are talking about a Panel on Climate Change projected food system is unsustainable, and 5 Introduction: What to eat? factor of 100! (IPCC). His interests are in only a significant decrease in meat and milk climate change mitigation consumption will allow us to deliver a food 10 The Greenpeace vision for reducing Having looked at a range of potential and impacts, greenhouse system fit for the future – for the benefit of the climate impact of meat and dairy options for moving toward a sustainable gases fluxes, ecosystem humans and the planet as a whole. 16 Environmental impacts of meat and dairy food system, including the full range of modelling, soils, agriculture, production-side measures available, it bioenergy, food security. Every day, and at every meal, we choose 24 Human health impacts of meat and dairy has become clear to me that we must He is a Fellow of the Royal what we eat. We need to start making significantly reduce consumption of livestock Society of Biology, a Fellow different choices, and governments need to 32 Concluding remarks and products now and into the future. Producing of the Institute of Soil provide policies that help us to make the recommendations the same mix of foods as we consume now, Scientists, a Fellow of the right choices, that are better for our health even if we were to do so more sustainably, Royal Society of Edinburgh, and better for the planet. The system will 40 Appendix: What Greenpeace means cannot deliver the reduction in environmental a Foreign Fellow of the need to transform to meet these challenges. by ‘ecological livestock’ impacts we need to protect the planet for Indian National Science This report outlines a vision for how this 42 Glossary our children and their children. Academy and a Fellow of transformation might happen. the Royal Society (London). With an increase in human population and with the gap between richer and poorer countries projected to get smaller, a rising middle class is projected to increase demand for meat, milk and other livestock products Prof Pete Smith, FRS, FRSE, FNA, FRSB considerably. People in richer countries are University of Aberdeen, 1st February 2018 2 LESS IS MORE GREENPEACE 3 The Greenpeace vision of the meat and dairy system towards 2050 Introduction An Image from the Greenpeace Introduction campaign ‘Too What to eat? much meat in school’. Lunch menus in a typical For millions of years on a daily French primary basis humans have faced the school will often include meat same question: What to eat? on a daily basis, This is a question shared both together with milk by ancestral hunter-gatherers products and working parents on their way home, wondering what to feed their family. The availability of healthy food and the consequences of the choices we make today about our daily diet can be very challenging to some, and overwhelming to others. However, not only does this question have an impact on our wellbeing but also on Earth itself. “The answer will determine what kind of future our children will have, and perhaps the destiny of our species” Many of us in academia and civil society believe that What to eat? is one of the most critical questions that will help shape our future. The answer will determine what kind of future our children will have, and perhaps the destiny of our species and many of the animals, microbes and plants inhabiting planet Earth. What we eat nourishes us and helps us to maintain a healthy life, but bad choices can also make us very sick. What food we eat, how much, and how that food is grown, is also key to the survival of our planet. © Elsa Palito / Greenpeace Palito © Elsa 4 LESS IS MORE GREENPEACE 5 The Greenpeace vision of the meat and dairy system towards 2050 Introduction Meat and dairy: Meat and dairy: “Greenpeace is The Greenpeace effect on the climate effect on our health calling for a global vision Our planet is changing and food is at the core of those Our diets have changed drastically in the past few reduction of 50% In this report, we try to answer the question of What to eat? changes. 2017 was the hottest year ever recorded, decades. Although large regional differences remain, in production and by reviewing the scientific evidence pointing at the ways in without an El Niño, and scientists are warning that the the general increase in the consumption of animal which changes to the global food system can help to achieve a ‘climate tide is rising fast’.1 The food system, including products is a global phenomenon. For example, from consumption of healthy population and healthy planet. In particular, we focus on changes in land-use linked to agriculture, 1989 to 2000, the global consumption of animal products how reducing meat and dairy consumption and production can is currently responsible for a quarter of all ‘more than tripled in rural areas and almost quadrupled animal products contribute to preserving climate, biodiversity and water systems, greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) that cause in urban areas’.11 At the same time the world population by 2050” while improving the wellbeing of humans, now and into the future. climate change.2 If we do nothing, by 2050 gas that is undernourished went down from 19% to 11%, emissions from the food system will represent however in parallel the global percentage of overweight The structure of this report reflects the various threats more than half of the total global emissions people increased substantially from 23% to 39% generated by our excessive production and consumption of meat associated with human activities.3 The effect (1.9 billion currently).12 and dairy.
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