Environment | Exit, the red meat!

After the publication of a file on the fight against climate change, many of you wanted to read and exchange concrete tips to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in your household. Every Sunday, we present one to you which will then be analyzed by the International Reference Center on the Life Cycle of Products, Processes and Services (CIRAIG).

Catherine handfield
Press

Today, a tip from our reader Guillaume Veillette under the magnifying glass of Dominique Maxime, analyst at CIRAIG

Guillaume Veillette’s thing

A few years ago, Montrealer Guillaume Veillette and his wife decided to give up meat. The transition was made without too much friction. “If we are inspired by international cuisine, we really do not deprive ourselves of flavor,” says Guillaume Veillette, who points out that we can also replace beef with poultry and reduce its portions to improve its carbon footprint.

Dominique Maxime’s comments

To see more clearly, we asked Dominique Maxime to compare the standard omnivorous diet with different options: the flexitarian diet, the vegetarian diet and, finally, the vegan diet.

Let’s start with a flexitarian diet, which would consist of reducing the amounts of meat (and replacing them with vegetable proteins) and swapping red meat for pork and poultry. “Studies show that the transition from a diet rich in red meat to this flexitarian diet can reduce by a third the GHG balance of the diet and by two thirds the area of ​​agricultural land that it requires”, indicates Dominique Maxime . Beef is five or six times more GHG emitters than pork and about eight times more than poultry, for two main reasons, he says. “The main reason is enteric fermentation in cattle [le processus digestif], which causes the emission of methane, a GHG 25 times more harmful to climate change than CO₂ », Explains Dominique Maxime. Another major source of difference is the conversion of land needed for cattle grazing in some countries – which affects biodiversity and soil quality – is another major source of difference, he says.

Now, let’s tackle the vegetarian diet, without meat or fish, but with eggs and dairy products. In this type of diet, notes Dominique Maxime, we increase the consumption of vegetable proteins, but we also tend to increase our consumption of eggs and dairy products. This therefore maintains some of the environmental pressure associated with cattle breeding.

“A review of studies shows that the transition from a regular omnivorous diet to a vegetarian diet can reduce on average by 33% [de 24 % à 56 %, selon les études] the GHG balance of the diet, and from 27% to 84% the area of ​​agricultural land that it requires, indicates Dominique Maxime. The transition to a vegetarian diet is therefore not always a better environmental option than the flexitarian diet, where all animal proteins are reduced. If the vegetarian is careful not to increase his consumption of dairy products (especially) and eggs, the chances that his diet is more virtuous are then greater, he says.

Finally, the same review of the literature shows that a vegan diet – free of animal proteins – reduces the GHG balance by 50% on average (from 22% to 70%, depending on the studies) and by 50% to 85% the surface area. of the agricultural land it requires. In all the studies considered, the vegan scenarios had a lower carbon footprint than the vegetarian scenarios.