An inconvenient truth: Diet has more impact on climate change than transportation. Here’s how to fix that.
A six-ounce steak is equivalent to driving a car for three miles... and contributes 330 grams of carbon to the environment, when you factor in growing the animal and transportation.
DEREK BERES: ‘Environmental research has revealed much about the impact of our nutrition decisions. According to Ben Houl, director of the John Muir Institute of UC Davis, one-quarter of climate change is attributed to food choices, which create twice as much global pollution as cars… For example… a six-ounce steak is equivalent to driving a car for three miles… and contributes 330 grams of carbon to the environment, when you factor in growing the animal and transportation… By contrast, an equal serving of chicken produces 51 grams of carbon, while fish produces 40 grams. If you go full veggie you’re at 14 grams; an equivalent bowl of lentils comes in at two grams per serving…
Michael Pollan is famous for his big-picture gaze on how we produce and eat food. His famous maxim, “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants,” is an essential mantra regarding our impact on our bodies and the planet. There is no surprise that personal and environmental health are linked. As Alan Watts used to say, we weren’t born into this world, we grew up out of it.
The “standard American diet” has produced an inordinate amount of suffering. We witness it in health care costs and rising sea levels. The places we don’t see it, on industrial farms and inside of our organs, are equally relevant. Knowing there are steps to help cure these ailments is important, but change only happens when taking those steps’. SOURCE…
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