What DOES Low Carbon Food Look Like? The Answer Might Surprise You (Feat. Meeru Dhalwala)

[@patrick7228]

Great video. I hear a lot of anti-ev people saying you would do better for the climate not eating meat than switching over to ev's. The fact of the matter is people have been pushing for less meat consumption for climate reasons as well. Surprise surprise there has been a huge amount of pushback. Meat industry and fossil fuel companies have similar playbooks it turns out.

[@patreekotime4578]

Right? You can always identify the insincere people with their constantly changing goalposts. They want to try to justify thier illogical dislikes instead of just saying they don't like it.

[@michaelrch]

Yep. There is research shoring that the animal agriculture industry is following exactly the same playbook as the fossil fuel industry, and the tobacco industry before that. The obvious answer is that we have to change diet AND transportation.

[@matthewsabin]

Thanks for including this - it's not as far from green transportation as some might think. One of my local restaurants also tries to source locally, but still needs to get ingredients from far away, they list the number of miles of transportation required for each menu item.

[@michaelrch]

Transportation is responsible for 6% of carbon emissions from the food system globally. Poore et al 2018. What matters is WHAT you eat, not where it comes from. Bananas from South America have a tiny fraction of the carbon emissions of beef produced locally.

[@matthewsabin]

@@michaelrch Agreed. But if I'm going to have beef, I'd rather it was from 11 miles away rather than 11,000 miles. I eat beef (and other foods which ag practices are quite bad for the environment) infrequently, and I aim for local when I do. If there was a local banana, I'd eat that too. So miles is a good shorthand for how bad two items of the same class are, and not great between classes.

[@michaelrch]

@@matthewsabin thats fine but why do you have to eat beef at all? In a US study, meat was 56-70% of the emissions in people's diet and beef was 80% of the emissions from meat - ie beef was about half the emissions of someone's diet all by itself. It's so disproportionately damaging - if you are aware of the catastrophic consequences of climate change, it's surely a no brainier to make this small change and stop paying for beef production. You're going to feel pretty stupid in 20-30 years if we don't get climate change under control, and food is actually scarce, that you carried on doing something so damaging even as half of Europe flooded and South America was on fire...

[@CheddarKungPao]

Don't love the argument that food isn't expensive because people who can afford to eat out don't finish the gigantic portions restaurants serve. Lots of working families are struggling with their grocery bills. Those of us who are well off enough to be wasteful don't negate that.

[@patreekotime4578]

Yeah, that argument was a bit naff. It reminds me of the lightbulb argument for energy use. It was never the consumer's fault that lightbulbs were inefficient to begin with... and worse, the lightbulbs weren't even remotely the major drivers of energy use as is now proven by rising energy demands in a post-incandescent world. That 33% includes stores and restaurants throwing out day old bread or malformed veggies. It includes farms throwing out ugly veggies before they even get to the stores. And it includes food that went bad due to bad packaging or being stored too long. It includes stores getting rid of discontinued or out-of-date items. The vast majority of it has nothing to do with consumers or things that consumers are even aware of. And waste on the production and sales end is a DIRECT contributor to the food prices. It's a big part of why organic is so expensive, because more of it is "seconds".

[@Jojobla-xi4gi]

food is expensive in "food desert" cities because everything come from somewhere else far. those that have affordable organic food abundant in their area tends to waste their food not just the well off or the rich

[@thinktoomuchb4028]

Meat is blood and salt. What? I wanted to like this video.

[@aftps5444]

Juicy and flavor, dependant on pallet.

[@alexwilsonpottery3733]

It helps if you don’t have to make a forty-mile round trip to find all the ingredients needed. It was actually easier when I lived in London, here in the midwest surrounded by corn and beans grown for animal feed and ethanol? Not so much.

[@michaelrch]

Growing food to be burnt in car engines is going to be seen as one of the most idiotic things humanity ever did...

[@bioniccrouton]

Came for the EV, stayed for the chick pea . Now, I'm famished.

[@michaelrch]

Hummus is food of the gods. With warm pitta bread and some really good olive oil. Hmm. 😋

[@LCCB]

It is an elite privilege to not waste food, to have the time and energy to plan, cook, and research ways to reuse every scrap. The demonization of non-organic and GMO is also an elitist view.

[@patreekotime4578]

Really, the best thing you can do for the environment is to just eat healthy. Beef is THE major contributor to carbon and to deforestation. It's also bad for you. Sugar is a major contributor to deforestation. It's also bad for you. Coffee, tea, chocolate... all major contributors to deforestation... and caffiene isn't great for you. And fish.... phew... it's either farmed and a driver of dangerous runoff, or is caught in unsustainable, carbon intensive ways... I honestly do not for a second believe any of the labels that say fish is sustainable, there is far too much evidence to the contrary. Unless you caught it yourself, you have absolutely no way of knowing. And despite being mostly really good for you, at this point the most prized fish like tuna and salmon are so full of mercury and other bioaccumulated heavy metals, that I don't understand why people continue to eat them, or indeed why there are not massive bans on fishing at this point. If you can afford to get your meat and veg from local farms, or patronize restaurants who do, that is the second most important thing you can do. I know that for a long time Subway was sourcing as much of thier veggies locally as possible. Not sure if that is still the case, and lack of transparency in the industry definitely makes consumer choice more difficult. Also organic food is 100% just a marketing label. The legislation for the label allows for a certain percentage of pesticides to be used on the farm or on each field. That means that the label is useless because you have absolutely no way of knowing if the specific veg you are eating was exposed to pesticides. And from a sustainability perspective, intentionally saying we aren't going to eat engineered crops specifically designed for better drought resistence, lower water requirements, and higher yields is insane. All farms contribute to food waste because of the desire for "perfect" produce on the shelves, and organics are even harder to get the "perfect" look. We have to totally rethink our priorities with this stuff.

[@Kirmo13]

This is a topic I'm more familiar about compared to EVs. I like it, thanks Kate

[@ericvet8b]

Education, education, education is king!! So many people don’t know how and they use ready meals, etc… so sad.

[@Russwig]

164... Keep Evolving!!!

[@ferkeap]

A sensible discussion. I find it weird that eating at home isn't normal. Going out to eat is not the norm here.

[@CSHarvey]

Indoor vertical farming amd precision fermentation will support food production IN population centers. I stead of shipping food from massive country ranches, we could be producing food next door to restaurant districts.

[@amorykcwong]

@@CSHarvey It's a nice idea, however in cities where property values are high, it's not practical. That's why so many indoor farms have gone bankrupt. I have a farm and sell at a farmer's market 8 minutes away; we use a E-Transit for transport. We see this as a low carbon solution.

[@Jojobla-xi4gi]

yes thats how to fight againts food desert city, the municipal gov need to support that by making land available, free training, tax reduction for inner city farming dev, supporting no single use packaging, supporting facility for composting, etc

[@michaelrch]

The energy costs of indoor farming are prohibitive. Plus transportation is usually a distraction. Transportation is only 6% of global emissions from food (Poore et al 2016). The exception is food that is flown, usually soft fruits and other perishables. That stuff is a no-no. Otherwise what matters is what you eat, much less than where it comes from. Bananas from Ecuador have a tiny fraction of the carbon footprint vs beef produced next door.

[@kevinpolito1529]

Does burnt toast count as fiber in your diet (carbon fiber)?

[@Jojobla-xi4gi]

as much as fiberglass body panel

[@tonybarton3746]

Anything food in our house which isn’t burnt ( as usual) we call low carbon 😂😂👍👍👍

[@bioniccrouton]

I love her! She's my kind of "nuts".

[@EryDark]

This one felt a little disingenuous, at least on a couple points. A lot of people who buy in bulk do freeze the excess - they aren't dumb. And even without a 30% food wastage premium, food costs are definitely through the roof.

[@pamelab1400]

What happened to your most recent live stream? I clicked on it and it wouldn't play, then it said video not available, then it totally disappeared from my q. Did you have to take it down for legal reasons? It was supposed to be on your air b and b experience.

[@transportevolved]

It’s coming back! We had to make some… adjustments ;)

[@douggoodman3914]

a cigarette a week could very well kill you! As could your neighbour's smoke from his wood stove or his diesel truck fumes, or carcinogens in hair spray or wood stains, or in food additives, et cetera I avoid these things as much as I can, and still manage to enjoy life!

[@michaelrch]

It's not just meat. Dairy is also a really big contributor to carbon emissions. Cheese is nearly as bad as some beef in terms of CO2/kg. Certainly more than chicken. Also transportation is a big distraction. It's only 6% of carbon emissions from the food system. What matters is what you eat, not where it comes from. Except food that is air-freighted. Avoid that!

[@scottmcshannon6821]

i remember when the media laughed when politicians claimed that trees and cows created a major % of the pollution gases.

[@cbuchner1]

Bowel movement evolved ❤