Could Eating Less Meat Reduce Rates of Deforestation?

What’s the story? 

• Similar to all forms of agriculture, raising livestock has a heavy impact on the climate and environment. Many of its processes emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere during food production, including animal emissions, transportation, storage, machinery usage, and converting ecosystems into farmlands. 
• Most researchers, climate scientists, and experts alike agree that decreasing the demand for meat — eating less of it — would benefit the environment and combat climate change.

How does animal agriculture impact the environment?

• Livestock, mainly cattle, directly emits methane during digestion, which is over 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. A single cow can produce between 154 to 264 pounds of methane per year, adding up to 37% of total emissions from human activities. 
• Currently, cattle ranching accounts for 80% of deforestation in the Amazon, amounting to 340 million tons of CO2 emissions each year and 3.4% of emissions worldwide. Brazil’s use of slash-and-burn agriculture releases high amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere as companies create land for cattle pastures and soy farms. This practice wipes out imperative carbon sinks from the environment, which scientists continuously emphasize the importance of in combating the climate crisis.
• Industrial animal agriculture puts more stress on the land by using unnatural products and processes to grow crops for animals quickly, such as synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, tillage, monocropping, and more.
• Forcibly speeding up crop growth ruins the soil, causing a cascade of problems and releasing the CO2 from the carbon sink in the ground. These practices often leave the land unfarmable, forcing industry leaders to cut down more forests to have clear land to farm on.

What are experts saying?

• Even though climate scientists are warning the public about the connection between meat consumption and climate change, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization projects that global meat demand will rise by more than 1% this year. 
• One study in Environmental Research Letters stated that over half of the CO2 emitted from the average American diet comes from eating meat. Another study found that going vegetarian for a year would save over one metric ton of CO2 emissions from the average American's carbon footprint. 
• Professor and climate change expert Naomi Oreskes said that cutting meat consumption is one of the most influential things Americans can do to tackle the climate crisis.

What would eating less meat look like? 

• In concurrence with many experts, Oreskes emphasized that becoming vegetarian/vegan is not the only way to cut down on meat. Even decreasing meat consumption by 25% would free up around 23 million acres of land that would no longer be used for animal agriculture. 
• The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research found that the increase in meat demand between 2020 and 2050 would eventually double the annual rate of deforestation globally. However, replacing 20% of the world’s per-capita beef consumption with an option like mycoprotein, a high-quality meatless alternative, would reduce methane emissions by 11% by 2050 and halve annual deforestation.
• As individuals take the step to eat less meat, many companies and start-ups are investing in alternative products to lessen the demand for meat, in turn relieving the environment of the associated stressors. 

What do you think? Will you cut down your meat consumption to help curb rates of deforestation? 

-Jamie Epstein