Climate Action Day 33 – Thoughtfully Opt for Meat Alternatives

Food and Farming

The Frog will explore The Climate Action Handbook: A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions by Heidi Roop in the first 100 days of 2024

In the first `100 days of 2024 we will explore 100 climate solutions that may “empower you to evaluate, engage, and act” to address on-going climate change as an individual on your terms.

We are not much of a hamburger family in general, but we all agree Impossible™ plant based burgers off the grill are quite tasty. Impossible claims that they “make delicious meat products, from plants, so you can eat what you love, and save the planet that you love. Small actions lead to big change”. Plant-based meat alternatives are growing in popularity, and their impact is starting to be felt in restaurants and grocery stores.

There is also significant investment in developing economical approaches to cultivated (or cultured) meat alternatives. In this form of “cellular agriculture” appropriate animal cells are cultured and grown into meat products in a laboratory or factory. Knowing the major impact that raising cattle for beef production has on driving climate change (Action 28), on the surface it may appear that producing cultivated meat in a seemingly less resource intensive, controlled process should have some advantages in climate mitigation.

Will switching to plant-based or cultivated meats have a positive impact? It turns out that it is, as are all things climate, complicated, and so it depends. Both plant-based and cultivated meats have a lower carbon footprint than beef, so a switch is a positive action. But if you mostly eat meat in the form of poultry, that has a lower carbon footprint that the alternatives, according to the Breakthrough Institute.

“The error bars represent the range and variability in emissions estimates for different proteins (except pork and poultry, for which only a single estimate was found). The error bars for cultivated meat are large because no commercial product is yet available. From this source.

“A diet including chicken and pork, but no dairy or beef, has lower greenhouse gas emissions than a vegetarian diet that includes milk and cheese…”.

The Breakthrough Institute

Becoming another consumer that stops buying beef is the strongest action you can take to eliminate the emissions from your diet. Plant-based foods are always less resource intensive than dairy, including milk and cheese. So getting as close to a vegan diet as you can is the climate goal. Do what makes sense for your lifestyle, taste, and appetite, and as always, eat healthy and in moderation.

Next Up: Climate Action in 2024 – Day 34: Switch to Nondairy Alternatives

Howard Creel

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Email: rescuethatfrog@gmail.com

One response to “Climate Action Day 33 – Thoughtfully Opt for Meat Alternatives”

  1. Mark T Meyering Avatar
    Mark T Meyering

    Big fan of Impossible Burgers.. also the Impossible sausage patties for breakfast. Perfect for an egg sandwich! Now, for the cheese slice.. next episode?

One thought on “Climate Action Day 33 – Thoughtfully Opt for Meat Alternatives”

  1. Big fan of Impossible Burgers.. also the Impossible sausage patties for breakfast. Perfect for an egg sandwich! Now, for the cheese slice.. next episode?

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