A conversation today at lunch time made me think about some notes I took on this topic, which I reproduce here:
Jonathan Foley gave a pretty convincing talk at ESA 2013 showing that meat consumption is unsustainable for the environment (i.e. land use + CO2 emissions). This was “the straw that broke the camel’s back”* for me and since then I reduced my meat consumption quite drastically.
However, I read a few days ago this paper showing that changing meat for vegetables and fruits can be even worse if you take also into account water footprint and energy use (e.g. transport and storage). I skip the details, but the bottom line is that the story is complicated and the best way to save the world is to reduce calorie intake and eat lots of grains. Here is Figure 2 from the paper (the paper style and figures are quite poor, by the way).
It’s hard because even if you want to do the best is not easy. Is it better for the environment to use bacon or eggplant with my pasta? No idea!**. If I knew the Y axe of the following graph things would be easier.
*this is what google suggest for translating “la gota que colma el vaso”.
**Is the bacon from pigs next door? Is the eggplant from Nicaragua?
