STUDY: Meat Would Cost 146% More and Dairy 91%, If We Factored Climate Change Into the Price

Study co-author Amelie Michalke believes that factoring the environmental impact into the cost of meat and dairy would reduce demand and help mitigate the climate crisis.

KAT SMITH: A new study reports that food production’s environmental damage isn’t factored into the final cost. Researchers from Augsburg University in Germany published the findings in the journal Nature Communications. If it was, meat would cost 146 percent more, researchers found. Dairy products would have to be 91 percent more expensive than they currently are… The new study also found that the climate impact of land use is primarily caused by clearing rainforests and draining peatlands in order to grow animal feed…

Food production is responsible for approximately a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, per a 2018 study published in the journal Science… A 2010 study found that beef requires 15,415 liters of water per kilogram. Meanwhile, pulses like beans, lentils, and peas require 4,055 liters of water per kilogram…

“We ourselves were surprised by the big difference between the food groups investigated and the resulting mispricing of animal-based food products in particular,” said Tobias Gaugler, study co-author and an economist and sustainability researcher at Augsburg University…

“If these market mispricing errors were to cease to exist or at least be reduced, this would also have a major impact on the demand for food,” added Amelie Michalke, study co-author and a doctoral candidate at the University of Greifswald…

Michalke believes that factoring the environmental impact into the cost of meat and dairy could help mitigate the climate crisis. “A food that becomes significantly more expensive will also be much less in demand,” she said. SOURCE…

RELATED VIDEO: