Taking on Food Emissions at Their Origin and Consumption

 

"A Food Connection to Climate Change

You might think it strange that the food system, which is responsible for a third of global emissions, is not brought up more as a focus of climate action. You don’t see it in protest slogans, you don’t hear politicians railing about it, and it’s not often a leading subject at climate change gatherings.

There are a few glaring reasons, according to Andy Jarvis, the director of future of food at the Bezos Earth Fund, the philanthropic climate change organization started by the billionaire Jeff Bezos. The fund has $10 billion to distribute by 2030 to foster ideas and action related to sustainability and emissions reduction, including $1 billion earmarked for “food system transformation.”

“One is, it’s not such a clear-cut source,” Dr. Jarvis said in a video interview before the Climate Forward event, referring to the disparate ways that food generates emissions, including methane emitted by grazing cows, trees cut down for cattle grazing and uneaten food sent to landfills.

The second reason is politics. It’s not easy taking on food interests, Dr. Jarvis said. “As much as it sounds like taking on the biggest corporations, oil companies, the most powerful lobbies in the world — that’s probably a lower-hanging fruit than taking on food.”

One other reason food isn’t highlighted above other emissions sources is that there is not one obvious solution. That’s why Mr. Jarvis said his organization funds differing approaches to reducing emissions from food, even when they appear to be in competition.

“We have this ‘Yes and’ approach recognizing that yes, we need livestock and we need livestock to be a lot more sustainable and we need to look for alternatives that will reduce meat consumption,” he said.

Alternative Proteins

As a vegan, Bruce Friedrich might be expected to say we shouldn’t eat meat. But that is no longer his position.

“Begging and cajoling people to eat less meat for 50 years has not decreased meat consumption,” Mr. Friedrich said. He pointed to figures showing meat eating up by 70 percent worldwide in the last quarter century and he expects it to increase by another 70 percent in the next.

“That’s certainly a lot of animal suffering, but it also makes climate goals completely impossible,” Mr. Friedrich added.

Mr. Friedrich is president of the Good Food Institute, a think tank dedicated to promoting alternative proteins, which include plant-based substitutes and meat grown from cultivated animal cells. The organization’s theory of change is that people will embrace such proteins if they can be made as delicious and affordable as conventional meat. “Nobody has yet created plant-based meat that tastes the same and costs the same or less,” Mr. Friedrich said.

For that to happen, Mr. Friedrich said the industry needs the same kind of support and funding received by another sector commonly associated with the climate crisis: electric vehicles.

“There would be no E.V. industry if not for the U.S. and China,” Mr. Friedrich said. “It will probably require government support to get us where we need to go on alternative proteins.”

As to why food isn’t given the same attention as other climate change issues, Mr. Friedrich said he thinks it is because world leaders didn’t believe the public would respond to futile appeals to eat less meat.

“They didn’t think there was another intervention that addresses the meat issue in the same way that renewable energy addresses electricity and electric vehicles address personal transportation,” he said.

For Mr. Friedrich, alternative proteins are that intervention.

A Better Way to Raise Cows

Will Harris has strong opinions about animals.

“The militant vegans and vegetarians have done a good job convincing the world that cattle are destroying the earth and destroying the environment, when I know better,” Mr. Harris said.

Mr. Harris is the owner of White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Ga., which has raised cows and other animals “regeneratively” since the mid 1990s. That’s an approach to farming where cattle graze freely and where farmers use minimal pesticides and disturb the ground as little as possible. Before that, the farm raised cows in a more conventional manner, using antibiotics, feedlots and the resulting pollution that gets unleashed into the surrounding environment.

“Having raised cattle industrially and having raised cattle regeneratively, I can tell you that cattle raised industrially are destroying the planet,” Mr. Harris added.

Proponents of regenerative agriculture point to the soil’s ability to store more carbon that would otherwise be trapping heat in the atmosphere. White Oak Pastures claims the organic matter in its soil, a proxy for the carbon it holds, has gone from half a percent to 5.5 percent since they switched to regenerative practices three decades ago.

Despite some tough financial years after switching his practices, Mr. Harris said the business now earns $30 million a year and runs its own training program. However, he would prefer to be an “early innovator” rather than the “niche provider” he might be if he remains an outlier in the industry.

Despite the environmental benefits, regenerative practices are far from a silver bullet. They don’t address the heat-trapping methane that cows emit, although they can offset it in carbon sequestration. And they still require land that could otherwise be used to grow carbon-hungry trees.

Even Mr. Harris said the planet has a “carrying capacity” when it comes to how much meat eating the planet can support.

Changing Behavior Without Changing Minds

Katie Cantrell wants people to eat less meat without trying to change their minds about animal products. The organization she founded, Greener By Default, uses a concept from behavioral economics called choice architecture.

“Right now pretty much everywhere, meat is the default, and people have to specially opt into plant-based options, which usually only strict vegetarians bother to do,” Ms. Cantrell said. “We can encourage ‘flexitarianism’ by making plant-based the default and giving people the option to add meat and dairy.”

In a previous role, Ms. Cantrell spent 10 years running a nonprofit dedicated to food system education, where she said she saw firsthand how hard it is to change people’s behavior using “facts and figures.” By changing the defaults, people still get to make their own decision, but the easier choice is the one that’s better for the environment.

That might be in a set menu at an event, the prominence of food options at a workplace cafeteria or, in the example Ms. Cantrell highlighted, the food you get in a public hospital system. In 2022 NYC Health + Hospitals, the country’s largest municipal health system, made patient meals plant-based by default. Ms. Cantrell said today more than 50 percent of patients accept that choice. The result: a reduction in carbon emissions of the hospital food program by a third after a year.

The ultimate default food option may happen in one of the most emissions-heavy environments — air travel. If the Greener By Default approach takes off, some day instead of being offered the usual mealtime option of chicken or beef, the only way to get meat or dairy could be to go online ahead of time and request it, much like vegans and vegetarians do now. But to avoid a backlash, Ms. Cantrell suggested that airlines instead make available one meat and two plant-based options for now, which she predicted would likely see a “tremendous uptake.”" [1]

1. Taking on Food Emissions at Their Origin and Consumption. Colgan, Jim.  New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. Sep 25, 2024.