Glad to see a bit more coverage on this issue on CBC. It’s an important discussion, and particularly timely, I think, with winter and the holidays coming up.
Food production is responsible for up to a third of greenhouse gas emissions around the world. A recent blog post from the World Resources Institute, a global sustainability think-tank, warns that agriculture alone could raise the Earth’s average temperature more than 1.5 C above that in pre-industrial times if we don’t change our eating habits. (Bold mine)
So, here are a few of my additional thoughts.
- The article points out that these are options that “do not involve going vegan.” I appreciate that they are looking for additional options – however, going plant-based (either partly or completely) is a really important part of the discussion. Let’s see this as “more options in addition…” instead of and either-or discussion.
- Protein (See quote below): Only thing I would add is that, in my experience, most people who eat plant-based are doing just fine for protein, even though it wasn’t noted in this study.
- Agree that those of us in cold-winter climates do not need to be eating green salads in winter. Potatoes and other winter veggies make great soup!
Veeramani’s research found that people eating all non-vegan diets in the study — including vegetarians — were consuming 150 per cent to 250 per cent of the recommended level of protein, and 60 to 80 per cent of it was dairy, eggs, fish and meat. (Bold mine)
That’s been backed up by other studies. According to the World Resources Institute, the average person in more than 90 per cent of the world was eating more protein than they needed in 2009, and the proportion of animal-based protein in people’s diets has been growing dramatically.
This is a problem, because animal-based proteins consume more resources and generate more greenhouse gases than beans, nuts and other plant-based proteins. Producing beef uses 20 times the land and generates 20 times the emissions as producing beans, per gram of protein, the World Resources Institute reports. (Bold mine)
Here is one of the legumes that is common in our household (which I started using when I was first in the Middle East). 10 grams of protein per 1/4 cup dried. 18 grams of protein per 250 mls/1 cup cooked.
http://www.phoeniciagroup.com/en/Prod.aspx?ProdSubCatid=11&ProductID=161
Happy sustainable eating! Thoughts?
