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Changing Diets for a cooler planet

Updated: Sep 7, 2019

Should we all become vegetarians to avoid catastrophic climate change? How would this affect our socio-economic system?

“The only thing I like better than talking about food - is eating.”

The global food system and our #diets, have been at the crux of much of the recent scientific research and publications. The results show that our current way of consuming and producing food, especially red meat, produces high amounts of green house gases. As a result, much of the current public discourse on social media has been on the necessity for our societies to become vegetarian or vegan, and on the need to 'ditch' the meat.

Image from: climatepolicyinfohub

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (#IPCC) we must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to net zero by the middle of this century (2050). This means that we have 30 years to change a system that impacts the entire economy and the way people live. The problem is that rapidly growing global population will result in an increased demand for food, which will worsen the negative environmental impact of our food systems.


According to a recent Journal article titled “Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers”, a quarter of global emissions come from agriculture, and more than half of those emissions come from animal products. Water availability, climate volatility, and #deforestation are among the most pressing related issues. The resources required to feed our hungry bellies are vast: 50% of the planet’s habitable land and 70% of freshwater demand is taken up by agriculture. We have all witnessed most recently the terrible fires burning the Amazonian forest.


Image from: ccafs.cgiar

The thing is.... Our food systems and diets are intrinsically linked to culture, religion, health, economic systems and peoples’ autonomy. Many say that food is culture. Imagine the herder communities across the world, the religious occasions... Food is also a huge part of our economies of course. Imagine what would happen to the streets of London or Shanghai if restaurants couldn't sell any meat for instance. There is so much interconnectivity, that messing with that system would have multiplying effects that are wide-ranging. That's why Zaid Hassan (free book) has called it “the mother of all complex systems”.


How we can find a way of creating socially just, and ecological food economies; without causing damaging systemic shocks?


We need a multi-pronged approach to mitigating emissions for the #agricultural sector, one which considers different timelines, and one which outlines a detailed strategy for how we are going to reach this goal. If we as a society are not careful, we will either run the risk of heating the planet too much, or of moving too much too fast and creating economic and cultural chaos.


This multi-pronged approach should consider:


A social shift to localism and 'flexitarianism'.

Continue to call for ‘flexitarian’ diets, or sometimes called part-time vegetarianism. These attainable campaigns do result in positive change, as people feel they have enough control and empowerment to achieve them. Thus, successfully sharing the message that reducing our meat intake is possible, which then snowballs into more vegetarian options in restaurants and super markets. This also gives the time to this economic sector to adapt to the change and find innovative solutions. Eating local and in season is another great way of reducing our carbon impact and supporting the local economy.Oh - and compost your food waste - it's so easy and simple to do really.


Legislate against ‘high-impact’ farming methods

Legislating to prohibit high-impact farming methods by banning dangerous agrochemicals, large monocultures, etc. Combined with incentives for farms to undertake mixed-crop farming; as well as adopting ecosystem and community-based adaptation, along with the incorporation of indigenous and local knowledge. While achieving this requires strong political will from our leaders, it is not impossible to achieve, would not result in systemic shocks, and would have an important positive impact within a reasonable timeline after implementation. Aiming for ‘low impact’ farming methods, especially in meat products would significantly lower agriculture's impact - especially if that's combined with a reduced meat consumption. And yes it would be enough to feed us all:

The industrial system: produces 30% of food, uses 70% of the resources.

The smallholder/peasant system: produces 70% of the food and only uses 30% of resources.


Gender equality and access to education

Finally, one of the most effective ways of mitigating emissions - related to diets and much more - would be to limit population growth. One of the most efficient ways of limiting population growth is women empowerment and education. It has been proven that when women have access to education, economic autonomy and access to contraception, they have less children. Population decline follows soon after, resulting in less humans to feed. The provision of better education for girls and women, needs only expansion of existing well-known programmes. (I feel like I should put this paragraph in every post I write though!)




Changing our food systems is more complex than all of us becoming vegetarians tomorrow. There are a host of options, not all of which are mentioned herewith, that must be simultaneously undertaken, in order to reduce the agricultural sectors’ emissions. Calling for achievable diet changes, low-impact mixed crop/livestock farming, combined with a serious re-doubling of efforts on tried and tested programme for gender equality and education can have important and significant positive impacts by 2050.

Further readings and sources:









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