According to a study published by the journal Nature a few days ago, if humans replaced just 20% of their beef consumption with a meat substitute by 2050, we could halve deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions associated with agriculture, but changing meat for protein means big changes in the agricultural world.
The study, conducted by Florian Humpenöder, a researcher at the Institute for Climate Change Impact Research in Potsdam, Germany, suggests that if farming methods remain the same and consumption patterns do not change, the annual rate deforestation linked to agriculture on a global scale is expected to double in the next 30 years.
However, if 20% of beef consumed were replaced with mycoproteins, proteins from fungi that are used to make fake plant-based meats, demand for beef would stagnate and humans could avoid half the deforestation and methane emissions caused by cattle breeding.
The conclusions of the study do not surprise Carole-Anne Lapierre, analyst in agriculture and food systems at Équiterre, who would like studies to be carried out on other types of vegetable proteins as well.
“We don’t need to stop all our meat consumption to have an impact on the climate,” says the agronomist who recognizes, however, that changing his eating habits is sometimes a challenge.
“You have to learn to cook, you have to get used to new tastes, you have to change our shopping habits and recipes,” a process that can be more complicated for some people.
According to a survey by the firm Léger conducted in 2019, nearly 9% of Canadians were vegetarians or vegans, while 26% declared themselves to be flexitarians, so they wanted to reduce their meat consumption without being exclusively vegetarians. Also according to the survey, 35% of the Canadian population declared that they consumed little or no meat, mainly for ethical and health reasons.
Radically change your eating habits
In 2019, the EAT-Lancet Commission, which brought together 37 leading scientists from the fields of public health, agriculture, political science and environmental sustainability, designed a diet that would limit climate change while promoting human health.
According to these scientists, to feed 10 billion people in 2050 without destroying ecosystems, the global food system would have to be radically transformed.
More specifically, “global consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes will have to double and the consumption of foods such as red meat and sugar will have to be reduced by more than 50%”.
Health Canada also argues that it is necessary to start a shift towards plant foods, as evidenced by the latest food guide.
On a large scale, such a shift would allow for more sustainable and environmentally friendly agricultural practices, but would also involve a significant change in the way agricultural land is used.
Using land to feed humans instead of animals
Currently, 80% of the grains produced in Quebec are used for animal feed and 75% of cultivated areas produce crops, mainly corn and soybeans, intended for animal feed according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
We therefore use arable land mainly to feed animals that will then serve as food for humans.
Several organizations, including Équiterre, advocate that agricultural land be used primarily to feed people.
“A change in diet must go hand in hand with a change in this proportion in the fields,” says agronomist Carole-Anne Lapierre.
To improve the climate balance of agriculture, which is responsible for approximately 10% of GHGs in Quebec, Équiterre offers nature-based solutions that contribute to soil health, including several practices including product diversification. cultivated.
Crop diversification is also a solution put forward by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
But integrating new crops is a challenge for some farmers.
“Society often asks more of farmers without understanding how difficult it is to be a farmer,” emphasizes Carol-Anne Lapierre.
She pleads for better support policies for farmers who wish to make the transition, highlighting a study by the Canadian organization “Farmers for Climate Transition” which highlights that per acre, the United States and the European Union devote respectively budgets 13 and 73 times higher than Canada for agri-environmental programs.
“Farmers don’t have a lot of profit margins” to try new practices, adds the agronomist, who explains that it is complicated to convince a farmer to start producing new crops, such as vegetable proteins, s he is not convinced that the market is ready to welcome this type of product.
But if we trust the forecasts of the group Market Data Forecast, it seems that the population will have more and more appetite for proteins that are not animal. The firm, which specializes in market analysis, predicts that the vegetable protein market could double by 2026, from approximately 23 billion to 48 billion Canadian dollars, on a global scale.