I’d make a meat pun, but I’d probably butcher it.

As some of the environmental realities of climate change begin to come to light on a global scale, the STEAKS couldn’t be higher!

But the real question is, could eating less meat, or no meat at all, really help?

Their is undoubtedly a food sustainability crisis facing us. An ever increasing world population must be fed on an ever shrinking, degrading amount of agricultural land. The FAO (2009) predicts that by 2050 the world population will have exceeded 9 billion people and these mouths need to be fed. This will require an increase of some 70% in food production on 2007 production values by 2050 (FAO, 2009).

However, surprisingly, it is predicted that the majority of this growth will be contributed by the developing world. In conjunction with this, we will see an increase in household per-capita income. This trend is associated with an increasing demand for more ‘wealthy’ food products, such as dairy, oils and meat.

I recently attended a lecture by Professor Tim Benton from the University of Leeds, a leading expert in global food sustainability. Professor Benton suggests a need for the re-framing of the issue of intensifying agricultural demand.

The real issue? – food dispersal

Controversially, it can be suggested that we currently have enough land and resources to sustain the predicted 9 billion people occupying the planet by 2050. However, these resources are unevenly distributed and unsustainably used. Large portions of agricultural land are given over to crop production for use in further agricultural production e.g. fish farming, chicken rearing, bio-fuel production.

Our current system is flawed, inefficient and wasteful. Professor Benton’s message seemed, to me, to be one of rethinking, not redoing. We need to do what we already do more efficiently and re-frame the issue in a different light.

Yes, further agricultural intensification is one answer. But, this can only go so far. The environment can not produce an infinite amount of resources in a finite geographical area. We currently produce an abundance of calories worldwide through mass mono cultured production of starch intensive cereals and cheap oils. We must therefore utilize our land area more efficiently.

One way of doing this may be to facilitate a shift in dietary culture. According to research, eating a majority vegetarian diet worldwide could reduce green house emissions by 63%. Now i’m not preaching that we should all become vegetarian, much less vegan, over night – I for one will never turn down a bacon sandwich! But…. further research suggests that even cutting down our meat intake to healthy guidelines could reduce food-related emissions by 1/3 by 2050.

Intensive livestock rearing contributes highly to green house emissions, by simply reducing the land we dedicate to certain farming practices we can aim to reduce both over-intensive, high-calorie diets and green house emissions.

Surely it’s a win win?

Now don’t run to Sainsbury’s and buy up all their kale, that’s not my suggestion. But maybe, if we make meat a once a day or a few times a week treat, then we can help to re-distribute the calories we are producing and dedicate resources to other agricultural avenues.

Until next time,

Laura

Some interesting articles for further reading: