FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE: SWITCH FROM BEEF TO BEANS

A group of researchers calculated what the impact on climate change would be if everyone in the U.S. substituted beans for beef in their diets. They found that this single change alone would help the U.S. come close to meeting the pledge President Obama made in Copenhagen in 2009 to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 17% by 2020.

“A relatively small, single-food substitution could be the most powerful change a person makes in terms of their lifetime environmental impact,” said Helen Harwatt, a specialist in the field of environmental nutrition.

The United Nations reports that nearly a third of the Earth’s arable land is used to grow feed for livestock, resulting in increased deforestation and methane emissions. In the U.S., replacing beef with beans in the American diet would free up 42% of farmland.

“The real beauty of this kind of thing is that climate impact doesn’t have to be policy-driven. It can just be a positive, empowering thing for consumers to see that they can make a significant impact by doing something as simple as eating beans instead of beef,” said Harwatt.

Source: The Atlantic

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/ if-everyone-ate-beans-instead-of-beef/535536/