The Potsdam Institute For Climate Change (PIK) recently released new results from a study in the journal Global Environmental Change: Non-CO2 greenhouse gases from agriculture could be reduced by 84% by 2055 if consumption of animal products is reduced and agricultural practices are improved.
“Meat and milk really matter,” says Alexander Popp of PIK. “Reduced consumption could decrease the future emissions of nitrous oxide and methane from agriculture to levels below those of 1995,” explains the first author of the study.
The calculations show that global agricultural non-CO2 emissions increase significantly until 2055 if food energy consumption and diet preferences remain constant at the level of 1995. Taking into account changing dietary preferences towards higher value foods, like meat and milk, associated with higher income, emissions will rise even more.
These findings however only apply to food consumption in the industrialized first world nations. For many poor and undernourished people in the developing world who frequently suffer from protein deficiencies livestock products are important parts of food consumption.
Food for thought: A conscious choice of food can substantially mitigate Climate Change.
