‘Rich nations must stop eating so much meat to save Earth’

ANOTHER six planets would be needed if the whole world ate like the most meat-loving G20 countries, a major report on foodrelated carbon emissions has found.

Australia and Argentina have the highest per capita carbon footprints of all countries in the G20, largely because of their high levels of red meat consumption.

If all the world ate like Argentina, an extra 6.4 planets would be needed to accommodate the land use and greenhouse gas emissions, according to the study Diets for a Better Future, conducted by Swedish NGO Eat.

The UK comes sixth in the G20 for the highest per capita carbon footprint, behind France, Canada and Brazil, and just ahead of the US.

Wealthier countries are eating at the expense of the rest of the world, the report’s author Brent Loken said, with the G20 countries accounting for 75 per cent of the global carbon food budget.

Of all the diets in the G20, only Turkey is below the threshold for the carbon budget, while Italy has around four times the recommended consumption of red meat and twice the amount of dairy.

No country is reaching its optimal intake of legumes and nuts, which both have a relatively low carbon footprint.

Mr Loken says governments should change their official dietary guidelines to take account of climate change.

The UK Government’s climate change advisers say it should encourage a 20 per cent reduction in the consumption of red meat and dairy, which would still be far above the red meat consumption recommended by the planetary health diet.

The report warns that developing countries’ diets are in danger of moving in the same direction as unhealthy “Western” diets.

Mr Loken argued that the speed of shifts in diet proved that the trends were reversible.

“If you look at many countries, such as China, the move toward an animalbased diet has happened in a generation,” he said. “In the UK, you will find that it wasn’t that many years ago where people weren’t eating like this. Your grandparents had meat once or twice a

‘Your grandparents had meat once or twice a week as it was a luxury item’

week because it was a luxury item.”

Almost everyone in the world would need to adopt a flexitarian diet to stay within the Paris Agreement goals of 2C warming.

This would mean no more than five servings of animalsourced foods a week and around 2,500 calories a day of mostly plant-based foods, with red meat in particular kept to a minimum.

This would protect human health and reduce soaring levels of obesity, as well as helping the environment.

Global food production accounts for approximately 24 per cent of annual greenhouse gas emissions, comparable to global electricity production.

Nearly half comes from livestock production and rotting food waste, both of which produce potent methane.