watercolour and crayon
©2020 Charlene Brown
A Canada/UKstudy published in Nature Food, a peer-reviewed online journal covering research, reviews and comment on all aspects of food production, processing, distribution and consumption, outlined the environmental and nutritional benefits of reducing consumption of red meats (significant) and dairy products (not so much).
They found that replacing half of the red meat in the average Canadian diet with
plant proteins would shrink an individual’s food-related carbon footprint by a
striking 25%. But replacing half the dairy products with plant alternatives only
erased 5% of dietary emissions.
The relatively small size of the environmental gains for dairy substitutes were put into perspective when they were weighed against some of the nutritional losses which would result from such a shift.
The most striking figure was that a 50% dairy
replacement would lead to a 14% increase in the number of people experiencing a
calcium deficit in Canada—an ingredient that is critical for the growth of
healthy muscles and bones.
The study
produced much more detail, and many more measurements, ratios, and percentages,
but I am only mentioning the most easily interpreted results ̶ coincidentally, the results which lead to
dietary recommendations I agree with. To a certain extent, I'm already following these recommendations in an effort to reduce my own carbon footprint. It’s not difficult to eat red
meat less frequently, but I’d hate to try to live without cheese.
I’ve used the
painting of Mt. Meager to illustrate this post because it seems to be my only
painting that includes livestock. They started out as horses (by no
mean a significant part of the Canadian diet) but for now they are going to be
cattle.
