Since everyone is talking about the environmental impacts of our dietary habits, let us talk about plant-based burgers and their impact they will have on the environment in the future. Just like with all other articles on this website, I will maintain a neutral stance and talk about what both sides of the audience have to say about the “good for the environment” buzzwords.
2019’s meatless revolution and the environmental protection movement
2019 was a big year for plant-based patties that mimic meat, and we can remember the PR reps and CEOs of those companies talking about the positive environmental impacts their companies will make in the long run. Beyond Meat’s Beyond burger uses 93% less land, 99% less water, 90% less greenhouse gas emissions, and requires 46% less energy to produce than its meat counterpart according to Beyond Meat’s CEO. Impossible Food’s Impossible Burger uses 96% less land, 89% fewer greenhouse gas emissions, 87% less water, and 92% less nutrient pollution than the ground beef, their website states. Consumers are eating less meat for a variety of reasons, ethical, health, economic, environmental, and so on. Although only 5% of US adults consider themselves to be vegetarian and 1.7% vegan, that number is growing.
Meat production is not slowing down
Meat production is also growing in the US even though meat consumption slightly decreased in the last two years. Americans consumed 220 pounds of meat per capita in 2018 whereas that number was 167 pounds in 1967. Plant-based meat manufacturers are not targeting vegetarians or vegans as their consumer base, rather, they are promoting the flexitarian diet which would gradually reduce the consumption of meat. According to the statistics, 90% of plant-based burgers consumers are not even vegans. According to the statistics, 90% of plant-based burgers consumers are not even vegans. Consumption of meats is higher in the Western industrialized countries and China where mass production of meats is still far more prevalent than in the less industrialized regions that rely heavily on agriculture and not on mass production of food. As Dr. Marco Springer, one of the leading researchers in the field of sustainability and the future of food from the University of Oxford recently said:
“We do not expect everybody to become vegan, but climate change impacts of the food system will be hard to tackle and likely require more than just technological changes. Adopting healthier and more environmentally sustainable diets can be a large step in the right direction. The size of the projected benefits should encourage individuals, industry, and policy makers to act decisively to make sure that what we eat preserves our environment and our health”
How much of it is just marketing?
Then there are those who claim that plant-based food industries claim to manufacture their edible products for the good of the environment but in fact are using environmentalism as a marketing tool. Quite a few companies have been accused of such practices especially in this day and age when even big food manufacturers and not just small startups are jumping onto the meatless bandwagon. There are various schools of thought when it comes to the introduction of the benefits of plant-based patties into our diets and their impact on the environment. Some scientists and studies claim that the impact is minuscule and some claim that it could even be worse for the environment than the meat industry’s impact. Dr.Frank Mitloehner in an interview for cnet.com states that “Considering all of the factors, there’s just no simple way to determine whether plant-based foods or animal-sourced foods are objectively better for the environment.” As Vice magazine recently pointed out that more and more “Big Meat” companies are getting into the plant-based food business but are they really contributing to climate-friendly foods? Some scientists who are pro-plant-based foods advocate that plant-based meat startups and companies shouldn’t use climate change as a marketing tool.
Takeaway
Dietary habits are changing. Shifting from traditional food manufacturing processes and practices to more sustainable ones is definitely a current trend. It is probably still too early to make any definite and bold statements about the long-term benefits of sustainable farming on our environment. Pretty soon we will have a lot more empirical data to work with and that will demystify all the doubts.