Save the Climate, Eat Less Red Meat

The way we eat is going to have to change — that is, if we are to preserve a livable climate on Earth. A new international study makes this clear. Over the next three decades, the food system’s impact on the environment stands to at least double if humanity carries on eating the way it does now. The negative effects include pollution and species loss, but the greatest threat by far is posed by greenhouse-gas emissions from growing, processing, packaging and transporting food.

More than two-thirds of those food-related emissions come from meat production, according to the 23 researchers involved in the study — led by Marco Springmann of Oxford University (and including Jessica Fanzo). Hence, their critical recommendation: Consumers, especially those living in certain high-income countries where meat is a significant part of the daily diet, are going to have cut back and adopt a more plant-based “flexitarian” diet.