The Single Most Powerful Way to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
and it is incredibly EASY by applying the “-1” principle
“The government handed us 4,000 acres of land as part of their plan to develop the area, so we set up 46 lodging projects to clear the forest for our cattle” said Luiz Helfenstein, a Brazilian cattle farmer from the Jamanxim National Park in the heart of the Amazon Rain Forest. Luiz comes from a simple background born in a family of farmers with 9 brothers and sisters. He is one of many.
In April 2021, the deforestation reached a level of 581 square kilometers — equivalent to the metropolitan city of Seoul with its population of 10 million. Even more disconcerting is the fact that the rate of deforestation increased by 43% compared to April 2020.
What is the situation?
In 2019 the world emitted 51 billion tons of Carbon dioxide equivalents, 19% of which can be traced back to food. It is therefore a major contributor (only Production 31% and Electricity 27% rank higher). According to the United Nations, 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the roughly 1 billion cattle in the world. No wonder why 60–70% of deforestation in the Amazon has been cleared and converted to breed cattle.
Cattle breeding is land and resource consuming since a cow needs to eat 6 calories of food for every calory of meat we get on our plate (in comparison to poultry, the ratio is 2:1).
With our population reaching 10 billion people by the end of the century the demand for meat and dairy is projected to increase further.
Why is this a problem?
The main challenge with the rising demand of meat is two-fold:
- More and more acres of land are requried to raise animals, particularly cattle which emit methane causing 28x more warming per molecule than carbon dioxide
- One of the most effective carbon sinks to capture and store CO2 are rain forests. They clean the air, remove dust particles and produce oxygen. They have been considered as the “green lung” of our planet. Yet, the rate of deforestation is acelerating and reached a record high of 10.1 thousand square kilometers in 2019
What can I do against this development?
An average American consumes 124 kg of meat per year which is equivalent to ~0.5 kg (one pound) on 5 days per week. By consciously decreasing the meat consumption there are two main benefits apparent by 2050:
- Reduction of emissions by 29–70%
- Reduction of global mortality rate by 6–10%
The chart below shows the amount of CO2-equivalents by 2050 if the world were to apply a less meat-heavy diet:
The analysis comes from a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2018), an independent research group made up of the world’s leading climate scientists. Data without error bars are from one study only.
Digesting this data one may think that skipping one “meat-day” per week is doable but what is the impact on a global level and for one personally?
On a global level:
A population of climate carnivores for instance (equivalent to skipping one “meat-day”), would already reduce more than 3 Million tons of CO2 equivalents per year compared to continuing as-is by 2050. This is more CO2 emitted by Germany, Canada, Mexico, Australia and Brazil together.
On a personal level:
The annual “Foodprint” by diet type shows that 1.6 tons of CO2-equivalents accounts for meat consumption per year (meat lovers minus vegetarians). Reducing meat consumption by one day per week would decrease a personal footprint by ~300kg of CO2 which is equivalent to a flight from Berlin to London.
On a personal health level, there is robust evidence that less meat consumption has beneficial effects on the human body, e.g., improved cognitive functions, mental and neurological health, energy metabolism.
Wouldn’t becoming vegan be even more impactful?
On a personal level yes, but not on a global level. To understand this we must take two aspects into account:
- Currently around 97% of the world population are on a non-vegan diet. In many areas of the world there’s simply not enough plant-based supply for a balanced meat-free diet as an economical option. For instance, most grazing land is unsuitable for growing crops but great for feeding livestock.
- We do not like change. So we must apply incremental, yet continuous impact. Applying the “-1” principle targets at basic human nature to reduce the amount of change required in order to maximize the impact, i.e., less emissions. Hence, a significant larger share of the population would be inclined to adjust their diet.
“-1” means to decrease your meat consumption by one day per week compared to your normal diet. For example: in case you eat meat on 5 days per week, then you consciously want to take the vegetarian option for 1 of the 5 days. You could increase the impact if you do it on a work day in the canteen and also tell your co-workers about the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the “-1” principle. To make your personal impact sustainable do not set your target too high but stick with “-1” at least for some time. Small but constant effort is much more effective compared to higher effort that dissolves after a period of time.
If we now reduce our meat consumption, what will then happen to the millions of farmers like Luiz?
Bain & Company has recently laid out how farmers like Luiz could become the key beneficiaries by adapting a deforestation-free business model. They need to increase productivity for soil recovery, fencing for pasture subdivision, water supply, etc. The main bottleneck at the moment is the lack of capital by investors. But if investors know one thing then it is to allocate capital to trending consumer behavior — less carbon intensive but higher quality meat.
When do you start to apply the “-1” principle?
