In the new series broadcast on Netflix Good on his plate. Proof by two, we are witnessing a fascinating study from Stanford University comparing the various effects of vegan and omnivorous diets in identical twins. Without revealing the results too much, in 2024, we have an interest in making more room for plants on our plates, and not just for health reasons. Here’s why.
My girlfriend became vegetarian ten years ago and it took me a while to follow suit. This is the documentary Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secretwhich deals not with the ethical but the environmental aspect of plant-based eating, which made me “vegetarian”.
Since then, a stream of scientific research has continually reaffirmed the ecological benefits of a plant-based diet. Intensive farming – this industrial formula at the origin of the vast majority of animal products consumed in the world – pollutes more, releases more GHGs, weakens declining global biodiversity, exacerbates antibiotic resistance, ocean acidification and eutrophication, all while requiring more land and water.
A rigorous study published in the prestigious journal Science in 2018 revealed that meat and dairy products provide only 18% of calories consumed worldwide, but occupy 83% of agricultural land while being responsible for 60% of GHG emissions attributed to agriculture. For example, the most ecological beef injects 6 times more GHGs and requires 26 times more land than plant proteins like legumes.
In 2019, at the request of the UN, around a hundred scientists from 52 countries modeled and compared 8 diets containing varying degrees of animal products. The vegan diet, which excluded them all, produced the greatest reduction in GHGs. These conclusions echoed those of Poore and Nemecek in Science : the climate crisis cannot be avoided without adapting eating habits and agricultural systems.
The EAT-Lancet commission (made up of 37 scientists from 16 nations) revealed food trends that could meet the needs of all humans in 2050, without exceeding the planet’s environmental limits. This “planetary diet” must prioritize vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts, and restrict the consumption of red meat to one serving per week.
In the magazine The Lancet Planetary Health in May 2023, around twenty researchers demanded that universities lead by example by offering vegan menus in their cafeterias. By not changing practices within their walls, institutions devalue scientific works that publish results recommending plant-based eating.
Policy measures are on the horizon that need to be reframed as public health efforts that are just as sensible as requiring people to wear seat belts in cars or banning smoking in certain common areas.
Greening your plate as much as possible is the most accessible and among the most powerful actions that we can take to concretely combat the ecological crisis, in addition to now representing a political act. Conscious consumers who seek to plant-based their grocery baskets will push the market to adapt and instill a little more courage in our leaders when it comes to the environment.
It’s February and it’s cold now. We should not lose sight of the fact that, according to data from the United Nations World Meteorological Organization and the European Copernicus Observatory, the year 2023 was the hottest on record and July, the hottest month on record. ‘History. A taste of what the future holds.
Ecological disasters transgress borders. We bear responsibility for what is happening and we have the power to act now. And it happens on our plates, three times a day.