Meat substitutes, or plant-based meat alternatives, are gaining popularity. However, Atze van der Goot — Associate Professor of the Food Process Engineering department at Wageningen University — claims that meat substitutes also have an environmental impact that you must consider.
Goot goes on to explain that there are inefficiencies in the water and energy processes used to make meat alternatives that diminish the environmental benefits they are aiming to improve.
Essentially, the extra processing required to make plant products resemble meat products adds to the net impact of these foods, erasing the difference between plant-based meats and sustainable animal meats in terms of GHG emissions, land use, water use, and energy use. Until the plant-based meat processing can be made more resource-efficient, it negates the efforts. Grasslands are important for the environment. They are key to sustaining soil health and when we have adequate, healthy grasslands, our ecosystem is provided with clean water, flood prevention, and natural food production.
When done in a truly sustainable manner, grazing and browsing animals are good for the environment :. In some areas, grazing and browsing animals are the only practical option for making the land productive for sourcing food, since it is not viable for crop production.
Climate change and increasing water scarcity in many regions throughout the work will unfortunately create much more of this type of land in the years ahead. The primary ways in which vegan diets help the environment surround food diversity, pollution reduction, and the creation of diverse food alternatives. Humans need various nutrients to survive, and there are different ways to source those nutrients.
Food diversity is important for both our health and improving global food security. As consumption patterns change and demand rises, food diversity is often reduced. Veganism and other plant-based diets force consumers to find other sources for protein and this contributes to the diversification of consumer food options. According to a study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences PNAS , as diversity in global food supply narrows, food security is threatened.
While we are not using all of our available resources, we can exhaust others and reduce food diversity in the process. Diversifying our diets and consumption habits contributes to increased global and local food security. There are several crops that help reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
For example, l egumes fix nitrogen in the soil. Legumes peas, clovers, beans, etc. The issue with excess nutrients like nitrogen is that it produces pollutants that affect our ability to breathe and see.
Additionally, it can alter plant growth, and harm forest, soil, and waterway health. Plants that can naturally trap these potential pollutants help restore balance to the soil and air. There are also various benefits behind planting trees because they help strip carbon dioxide from the air. By increasing the number of fruit trees planted, we not only provide sources of food, but also help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Lastly, incorporating virtuous agricultural techniques like cover cropping can benefit the environment.
Fields are being left bare when primary crops are not growing, and this creates a number of problems.
By using cover crops in the off-season, farmers help protect erosion-prone soil that can end up as sediment in water sources. Cover cropping also reduces the need for harmful nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides. Conventional dairy production rightfully creates concerns about pollution.
Large dairy farms house thousands of cows to produce milk, and those cows create a staggering amount of manure. It has only a very weak link with an increased risk of cancer and this is probably caused by excessive cooking, not the meat itself 29 , 30 , Saturated fat has also never been proven to lead to heart disease.
A study of almost thousand individuals found literally no association between saturated fat consumption and cardiovascular disease 32 , 33 , Studies on eggs show no effect either.
Multiple long-term studies have been conducted on egg consumption, which are very rich in cholesterol, and found no negative effects 35 , The thing is that animal foods… meat, fish, eggs and dairy products for those who can tolerate them, are extremely nutritious. They are loaded with high quality protein, healthy fats , vitamins, minerals and various lesser known nutrients that have important effects on health.
There may be ethical or religious reasons not to eat animals… I get it. But there is no scientifically valid health reason to completely eliminate animal foods. This includes age, gender, activity levels, current metabolic health, food culture and personal preference. Vegan diets may be appropriate for some people, not others. Different strokes for different folks. If you want to eat a vegan diet, then make sure to be prudent about your diet.
Take the necessary supplements and read some of the books by the vegan docs, I'm sure they at least know how to safely apply a vegan diet.
If you're getting results, feeling good and are managing to stick to your healthy lifestyle, then that's great. If it ain't broken, don't fix it. But don't use fear mongering and scare tactics to persuade people to join your cause and scare them away from perfectly healthy animal foods. That ain't cool. This article was republished with permission from Authority Nutrition.
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It often indicates a user profile. Log out. US Markets Loading H M S In the news. Science Contributors. Kris Gunnars, Authority Nutrition. Sign up for notifications from Insider! In some areas, like Peru and Chile, the growing demand for the crop has led to illegal extraction from rivers and has been blamed for an increasing water-shortage crisis.
Avocadoes are not alone in their extreme water use. Other fruit such as mangoes and plums also suck up large amounts too. A kilogram of mangoes requires litres gallons of water while the same amount of plums needs litres 67 gallons. After harvesting, however, some avocadoes and mangoes are also bathed in hot water for over an hour to prevent insect infestations and control decay.
Their highly delicate flesh and rapid ripening also means that much of the fruit imported to Europe and the US is flown there by air. Avocado Credit: Getty Images. Together with the amount of waste, special storage conditions and packaging needed for avocados, this helps to give the fruit a hefty carbon footprint — the equivalent of 2. It also estimated mangoes emitted 4.
These figures may be lower because not all countries have to freight their fruit by air to get it fresh. From dark rooms filled with steaming piles of compost buds a mainstay of the vegan diet. They are commonly used in many meat-free alternatives. But for a crop that flourishes without light by feeding on rotting organic waste, they can have a surprising impact.
One study, funded by the US Department of Agriculture, showed that producing a kilogram of Agaricus bisporus — the common button, chestnut and portobello mushrooms we buy in the shops — emits 2.
Most of the emissions come from the energy needed to keep the rooms where mushrooms are cultivated warm. Growing rooms and compost need to reach temperatures of up to 62C , depending on the system being used, in order for the mushrooms to grow. But carbon dioxide is also produced by the mushrooms themselves as they respire and grow. Much of this is kept inside sealed rooms where the carbon dioxide concentrations are carefully controlled.
Different mushrooms will grow at different sizes and shapes depending on the CO2 concentrations and at times varieties can require CO2 levels that are up to 48 times higher than the outside air. At times, excessive CO2 is often exchanged with fresh air.
Still far less than beef. And less than the "greenest" farmed meat — chicken — which produced 4. Of course, fishing has its own environmental and biodiversity issues on top of that, though. Much of the carbon footprint of mushrooms comes from the heat needed to grow them indoors Credit: Getty Images. One further consideration is the use of peat in many of the composts used by the mushroom industry.
Unless extracted sustainably, this can damage delicate bog ecosystems and deplete their ability to store carbon in the future. But there are hopes that by using more food and agricultural waste to create sustainable compost substrates for mushrooms to grow in, using the material left after harvesting to make biodegradable packaging, and piping carbon dioxide into greenhouses to grow plant-based crops, it may be possible for mushrooms to become truly green.
Another popular meat substitute grown from fungi, mycoprotein has some surprising environmental impacts. Making it uses a fraction of the land compared to chicken, pork or beef, but the carbon footprint is estimated to be 5. More than half of this, however, comes from processing after the fungi produces the protein — some vegetarian mycoprotein products, such as mince, are combined with egg white to bind it together.
Some companies are now exploring whether mycoprotein fungi could grow on agricultural food waste rather than sugar, which could halve the amount of carbon emitted by the process. Quorn, one of the leading mycoprotein manufacturers, recently released a detailed breakdown of the different emissions from its products. To make the mycoprotein itself produces just 0. But to produce its vegan chicken-free slices, for example, releases 3. The company says it hopes that by publishing the information it can help its customers make informed decisions about what impact the food they eat is having on the environment, and has called on other brands to follow its example.
It may have developed something of a reputation as a health food in recent years, but cocoa and raw cacao products have a dark side when it comes to the environment.
Exact figures for how much forest is being lost due to cocoa production are hard to pin down, but it is estimated that million hectares 4.
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