According to Greenpeace, since 1961, meat consumption has more than doubled. This means the demand is ever-increasing & cattle continue to emit more and more methane (a gas with effects 28 times more impactful than CO2).

So before you tuck into your T-bone steak or your ‘fully loaded’ cheeseburger, did you know meat and dairy account for roughly 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions?

Here are three reasons why:

It is causing deforestation:

• Unfortunately, global heat has led to numerous wildfires in areas like Siberia & the Arctic at an alarming rate. It has been recorded that nearly 75 million hectares of tree cover were destroyed between 2001 & 2015.
• You may have seen it on the news, but unfortunately, farmers are getting so desperate for space that in countries like Brazil, they are setting fire to forests, including the Amazon, to make space for cattle ranching & to grow some more animal feed like soya.

We are trading in nature for our wants:

• The Amazon rainforest is such an incredible space; beyond the fact that it creates its own rainfall, it is home to over 3 million species. Things like deforestation for industrial meat is pushing the Amazon to a very dangerous place. The Amazon could be in danger of no longer being able to sustain itself as a rainforest. This would only lead to more disturbance & disruption to the beautiful homes of all these animals & the people who depend on them.

We are pushing boundaries:

• Did you know over a quarter of the world’s land area is used to grow food for farm animals to graze on? When all the costs are considered, it isn’t an efficient way of approaching things. A perfect example can be seen with chicken. For every 1kg of chicken meat made available, 3.2kg of crops has been grazed on.
• If we decided to switch to vegan diets, we would need 75% less farmland than we currently do. To put that into perspective, if you take Europe, China, Australia & the USA, combine them, that would be the amount of farmland saved!

The less the demand, the better it is for the environment. This is not to suggest that if you stop eating meat, climate change will stop, but being mindful of what we consume & how regularly we consume it, is a vital part of a much bigger picture. The great thing is there are so many alternatives coming out from Heura foods to Clean Kitchen UK; we have movers & shakers rising up to provide solutions to these problems.

Now is the time for us to be receptive to these changes. All that is required is a desire to make a positive impact by introducing more balance into your diet; we can work towards a fairer & sustainable way of eating.

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