No matter how often we hear “EAT LESS MEAT” we eat more meat when we can afford it, because we like it. @HannahRitchie02 reports. Continue reading
Author Archives: Susan MacMillan
Where nutrients and protein sourced from livestock remain vital—Crawford Fund
‘Coinciding with the launch of the EAT-Lancet “Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems” report, Dr Colin Chartres, the [Crawford] Fund’s CEO, . . . discusses the importance of ‘smart foods’ and smart people for a healthy population and planet. Continue reading
Climate change policy must distinguish (long-lived) carbon dioxide from (short-lived) methane–Oxford study
a group of scientists recently published a paper on the importance of distinguishing—and treating differently—two of the most common greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide is a long-lived emission and methane a short-lived one. The paper outlined a better way to think about how much, and how long, carbon dioxide and methane gases contribute to greenhouse gas emissions budgets. Continue reading
FAO sets the record straight–86% of livestock feed is inedible by humans
FAO has set the record straight regarding not just the level of greenhouse gas that livestock emit (see yesterday’s posting on this blog) but also incorrect information about how much food (crops eatable by humans) livestock consume, the regular reporting of which is commonly used to bolster arguments for the world to go vegetarian. Continue reading
FAO sets the record straight on flawed livestock emission comparisons–and the livestock livelihoods on the line
As the media frenzy caused by a ‘planetary health diet’ proposed in a new report from an EAT-Lancet commission this month continues, it is perhaps timely to recall that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has set the record straight regarding a flawed comparison of greenhouse gas emissions from the livestock and transport sectors, a statement that is commonly used to support arguments for the world to stop eating meat. Continue reading
IFPRI’s Shenggen Fan on the ‘differentiated approach’ needed to navigate today’s food systems
The following sensible comments were recently made by Shenggen Fan, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Fan is one of the 37 authors of the new report making the media rounds, Food in the Anthropocene: The EAT–Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems, and a member of the EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health. Continue reading
With huge variations in meat consumption, we’re ‘all in this existential crisis together’—Vox
The way we eat and produce food has become so destructive to the environment and our health that it now threatens the long-term survival of the human species, an international commission of 37 scientists write in a sprawling new Lancet report. Continue reading
Scottish gene-edited chickens produced to help stop bird flu
Reuters reported Sunday that this first batch of “transgenic” chicks is expected to hatch sometime in 2019 at the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Continue reading
Lancet Countdown 2018 report shows concerning trends in heat and heat waves, infectious disease and declining food security
Originally posted on AgHealth:
The Lancet Countdown: tracking progress on health and climate change is a multidisciplinary, international research collaboration that provides a global overview of the relationship between public health and climate change. Publishing its findings annually in The Lancet, the initiative generates research evidence to inform an accelerated policy response to climate change.…
Livestock and trees: A more perfect union
Finding flexible solutions to land usage, plus more good land on which to grow food, is essential to our survival. . . . [L]ivestock in the right places, using thoughtful methodologies, just may be able to feed us and feed the soil—all while helping us meet carbon and other climate goals. Continue reading