• VariousWorldViews@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Eating the rich is by far the most eco-friendly approach as it can dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

    • PanaX@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I vehemently disagree with this statement.

      We need to compost the rich and use that as a soil amendment to grow heirloom vegetables.

    • r1veRRR@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Ok, are actively working on this? Is your work on it so horrendously demanding of all your attention of every single day, that you couldn’t ALSO go vegan, or vegetarian, or just eat less meat? Eat the rich is just a fun day dream and a lazy excuse to not do what you can (like going vegan).

      Eating the rich would also vastly reduce racism, sexism, classism, and worker exploitation. Can I therefore ignore my negligible personal impact, and keep being racist, sexist, classist, and buy only the cheapest clothes crafted by the most exploited third world toddlers?

  • krayj@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This crucially important caveat they snuck in there:

    “Prof Scarborough said: “Cherry-picking data on high-impact, plant-based food or low-impact meat can obscure the clear relationship between animal-based foods and the environment.”

    …which is an interesting way of saying that lines get blurry depending on the type of meat diet people had and/or the quantity vs the type of plant-based diet people had.

    Takeaway from the article shouldn’t be meat=bad and vegan=good - the takeaway should be that meat can be an environmentally responsible part of a reasonable diet if done right and that it’s also possible for vegan diets to be more environmentally irresponsible.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s both absolutely true and a massive distraction from the point. An environmentally friendly diet that includes meat is going to involve sustainable hunting not factory farming. In comparison an environmentally friendly vegan diet is staples of meat replacements and not trying to get fancy with it. It’s shit like beans instead of meat, tofu and tempeh when you feel fancy. It means rejecting substitutes that are too environmentally costly such as agave nectar as a sweetener (you should probably use beet or cane based sweetener instead).

      So in short eat vegan like a poor vegan not like a rich person who thinks veganism is trendy

      • Awesomo85@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        “So in short eat vegan like a poor vegan not like a rich person who thinks veganism is trendy”

        But in the context of this conversation, wouldn’t eating like a poor vegan rely heavily on buying products that also have a heavy impact on the environment?

        You would have to buy cheaper products which come from mass produced farms that use TONS and TONS of water! And generate TONS and TONS of carbon emissions during production of those products.

        To be vegan AND advocate for conservation(you can advocate for something no matter your own behavior. That’s the wrong word to use) to claim that your lifestyle is better for the environment than your non-vegan counterparts, you have to have money.

    • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      If I source my beef or lamb from low-impact producers, could they have a lower footprint than plant-based alternatives? The evidence suggests, no: plant-based foods emit fewer greenhouse gases than meat and dairy, regardless of how they are produced.

      […]

      Plant-based protein sources – tofu, beans, peas and nuts – have the lowest carbon footprint. This is certainly true when you compare average emissions. But it’s still true when you compare the extremes: there’s not much overlap in emissions between the worst producers of plant proteins, and the best producers of meat and dairy.

      https://ourworldindata.org/less-meat-or-sustainable-meat

      Plant-based foods have a significantly smaller footprint on the environment than animal-based foods. Even the least sustainable vegetables and cereals cause less environmental harm than the lowest impact meat and dairy products [9].

      https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/8/1614/htm

    • thehatfox@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yes, I think it’s vital to avoid thinking in absolutes over carbon footprints if we are to make real progress. We can argue endlessly over the “necessity” of consuming meat, but that becomes a distraction. Many things are not “necessary”, but most people are not realistically going to live in caves wearing carbon neutral hair shirts.

      We need to continue increasing transparency on the impact of different animal products, so consumers can make informed choices. While also accepting they may not always be perfect.

  • Another Llama ⓥ@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    A couple of people have spoken to me before about wanting to cut back on, or completely cut meat from their diets, but didn’t know where to start. If anyone reading this feels the same way, here’s some fairly basic recipies that I usually recommend (Bosh’s tofu curry is straight up one of the best currys i’ve ever had - even my non-vegan family members love it)

    Written:

    Videos:

    Tofu is also super versatile and is pretty climate-friendly. there’s a bazillion different ways to do tofu, but simply seasoning and pan frying some extra/super firm tofu (like you do with chicken) with some peppers and onions, for fajitas, is an easy way to introduce yourself. Here’s a little guide for tofu newbies: A Guide to Cooking Tofu for Beginners - The Kitchn. If you wanna level up your tofu game with some marinades here’s six.

    Lentils and beans are also super planet friendly, super cheap, and super versatile! You’ll be able to find recipies all over that are based around lentils and beans so feel free to do a quick internet search.

    Sorry for the huge, intimidating wall of text! I do hope someone interested in cutting back on meat found this useful though :)

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      One of the things that annoys me about vegans… is they always try to convince me [this recipe] always tastes like the real thing.

      And I think any one who eats meat on a regular basis is going to know an impossible burger is not beef- it might be the closest, sure.

      Probably the best way to “convert” people- or encourage reductions- is to be less apologetic. Tofu is wonderful and delicious as it’s own thing- but as tofu-chicken or tofurky or anything of that sort, it sets expectations that can never be met.

      Forgetting to mention a dish that stands in its own happens to be meatless… well, my parents were halfway through the second bowl of a tofu stir fry before they realized it.

      • kicksystem@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        One of the things that annoys me about vegans… is they always …

        And one thing that annoys me about non-vegans is that they always tend to stereotype vegans. There are nearly 100 million vegans in the world my friend. We are not all the same.

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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    23 days ago

    We should keep their brain, dick and balls so we can clone the billionaires (adult sized from the clone-0-matic) then before they wake up, we upload their mind, and we fuck them with their own dick! Hey if you collect enough you could open up an only fans Page!

  • Move to lemm.ee@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    In this thread: Shit loads of people who will say they care about the climate crisis on one day, then say they don’t care about the 18.5% of global carbon emissions that the meat industry causes the next day because they can’t get over the decade worth of anti-veganism jokes and memes that they’ve constantly repeated uncritically.

    Individual habits MUST be changed to solve this part of the problem, there is literally no way around that. Getting triggered and writing screeds because you’ve spent decades getting caught up in hate over food choices won’t stop the planet burning.

    • HeuristicAlgorithm9@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      No amount of individual choices can save the planet. The climate change causes by corporations is sufficiently world ending. So even if literally every single person on the planet went vegan it wouldn’t be enough. The idea of a personal carbon footprint was created by BP in order to make people put the blame on themselves. The only way to stop it is mass industrial action. Personal choice, at least at this point, is completely irrelevant.

      • Djennik@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The only way to do this is to not buy products that are incredibly harmful to the climate and voting for politicians that want to sharpen climate policy. Industries won’t regulate themselves. Acting like the consumer/voter can’t do shit is just straight up lying and results in inaction.

        • HeuristicAlgorithm9@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          I never said anything about not voting for industrial action. But if you look at it logically, if there’s no industrial action with or without consumer choices the world burns, but if there is industrial action then with or without consumer choices (partly because the industrial action would alter what choices are available) the world has a chance to survive. So in our current situation devoting energy and thought to consumer choices is not just pointless if you would otherwise be working towards industrial action in any capacity it is actively detrimental (hence why BP created it as a concept)

          • Djennik@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Again who is going to work towards industrial action? Not the industries… That’s not how capitalism works. Do you really think that asking them to be more climate friendly will work?

            Industries listen to two things: money and policy. And I’m not even so sure about the latter. Vote at the ballot and vote with your wallet.

            If you don’t want to change, the CEO of BP won’t either because he’s still getting those tasty dollars out of your pockets at the pump and through government aid.

            • Gutless2615@ttrpg.network
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              1 year ago

              How do you think regulations work?? The poster is correct, no amount of individual action will save us. We need to collectively fight for regulations that force - not ask - businesses to change. “That’s now how capitalism works” — what does that even mean??

    • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      On the other hand, we could always just wait for the rich to tighten meat production and put us all on nutri-loaf.

      • Move to lemm.ee@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Ahh yes we can just wait for the rich to willingly reduce their profits. I’m sure that will come before the heat death of the planet.

        • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Don’t worry, such a change would be accompanied by significant increases in the price of nutri-loaf.

  • bossito@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I upvoted because this message still didn’t reach everyone, but I guess it’s just that people are in denial… like, isn’t this obvious? And weren’t there already dozens of studies proving it?

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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    1 year ago

    I was just talking about this idea with a friend. We decided it would be political suicide in the US for anyone to suggest eating less meat.

    People would literally rather see the world burn than give up their chicken nuggets.

    I’m not even hardcore vegetarian. I looked at the situation and agreed it’s hard to ethically justify eating meat. So I started eating less. I’m down to pretty much just “sometimes I get a pizza slice with a meat topping if there’s nothing good without meat”. Maybe I’ll cut that out too one day.

  • The1Morrigan@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Who cares how much meat I eat when there’s a billion cars, 2 billion factories and 1000 greedy billionaires burning the world to the ground?

  • BeeOneTwoThree@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    People can’t think critically over why they prefer meat over vegetables. They just think they do it because hurr durr meat tastes better or you need protines.

    If they actually think about the fact that they have been eating meat for every meal since they were a child they might understand that it is just a habit they have formed.

    I strongly suggest to those people to try to have 1 dinner a week without meat or fish. It has nothing todo about taste and all about habits and what you are used to.

    Try to challenge yourself a little bit and you might get a better perspective over these things.

    • ragepaw@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      Saying someone is “hurr durr meat tastes better” is wrong is so dismissive of other people and completely insufferable.

      I agree, people should eat less meat. We often have meals in my house that don’t feature meat. But guess what, I think meat tastes better.

      The best way to alienate people and turn them against your point of view is to be an insufferable twat.

  • SmolSweetBean@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    OK, but what if instead of going vegan, I just don’t have kids. Because adding more people to the world also creates more greenhouse gasses.

    • derf82@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Exactly. Not having kids covers my any excess from meat and driving easily.

      We’ve been eating meat for millennia, while climate change has only been an issue for a century, yet somehow meat eating is the problem, not the billions of people we have added.

      • Spzi@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Fossil fuels are the problem, but not eating meat is a juicy, very low hanging fruit.

        There is no other way to prevent that much emissions for basically not changing anything. You will still eat 3 meals a day for a similar price.

        • derf82@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It’s not nothing to me. Eating isn’t a mere chore, I eat because it is enjoyable. Vegan entrees just are not consistently palatable to me. Take away meat and I’m sorry, but my list of reasons to live will dwindle.

          And besides, I’d argue not having kids is an even lower hanging fruit by your reasoning. That even saves money. A lot of money.

          • Spzi@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Take away meat and I’m sorry, but my list of reasons to live will dwindle.

            Seems you haven’t had a good veggie dish yet. I totally get how enjoyable food is central for a happy life, but you don’t enjoy it because it was killed instead of harvested. I’m pretty sure you have a few veggie foods you enjoy, maybe without realizing they don’t contain meat.

            And besides, I’d argue not having kids is an even lower hanging fruit by your reasoning. That even saves money. A lot of money.

            As said in a nearby comment: Only if you didn’t want to have kids anyways. In which case it should not be counted as a saving.

            If you want to have kids but don’t because of climate, that’s probably tougher to stomach than a slight composition change on your plate.

            • derf82@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Seems you haven’t had a good veggie dish yet. I totally get how enjoyable food is central for a happy life, but you don’t enjoy it because it was killed instead of harvested. I’m pretty sure you have a few veggie foods you enjoy, maybe without realizing they don’t contain meat.

              Or maybe I have different tastes than you.

              I really hate that attitude that because it isn’t much of a sacrifice for you, it isn’t for anyone else. People are different.

              Heck, even if I found your one magical dish, I’m not going to eat it for the rest of my life. Even with meat, I choose variety.

              As said in a nearby comment: Only if you didn’t want to have kids anyways. In which case it should not be counted as a saving.

              If you want to have kids but don’t because of climate, that’s probably tougher to stomach than a slight composition change on your plate.

              Oh, so personal preference suddenly matters? Seems you haven’t found the right hobby yet. I totally get how kids are central for a happy life, but you don’t enjoy them because they are your kids instead of pets. I’m pretty sure you have a few activities you enjoy, maybe without realizing they don’t contain kids.

              See how you sound?

              How about this, you don’t eat meat, I’ll not have kids? We’ll see in 100 years who had a more meaningful impact on climate change.

    • Bipta@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      What if you don’t have kids and just make an effort to reduce intake of animal products knowing it contributes to global collapse and also represents a modern holocaust.

      Animal products don’t have to be as all or nothing as having kids.

      • kartonrealista@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That moment when your veganism goes so hard you commit a hate crime on the internet implicitly comparing Jews to cattle

        Edit: I’m from Poland, the country where most of the Holocaust happened - this is where the Jewish population was the highest and where Germans build their death camps. We read about it extensively at school, including eyewitness accounts describing the atrocities involved in this horrific campaign of human extermination, from the home of the Jew, to the ghetto, to the transport train, to the camp, to the gas chamber and to the furnace. Many of us heard those stories from our grandparents, of their neighbors being humiliated and taken away, ghettos liquidated, and public executions. I don’t know what kind of deplorable scumbag one has to be to equate factory farming with the Holocaust.

        • Spzi@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          implicitly comparing Jews to cattle

          Yes, it’s a tasteless comparison. I’m a German. Hello neighbor, nice to live in peace.

          The comparison also falls flat because while the Holocaust was a genocide, meant to eradicate, factory farming is the polar opposite.

          The population size of factory farmed animals is usually way above natural levels, because we farm them. A philosopher even called it an evolutionary win for the farmed species (which does not justify any harm done to individuals).

          There are more ways to express ‘very bad’ than comparing to the Holocaust, and many reasons not to, if you understand it.

          • renownedballoonthief@lemmygrad.ml
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            1 year ago

            You’re right, it’s so much fucking worse than the Holocaust by orders of magnitude. At least the Nazis weren’t raping women to keep the Holocaust perpetually going.

        • Primarily0617@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          *implicitly comparing the treatment of Jews during the holocaust to the treatment of cattle today

          also, you can compare two things without equating them

          I think if you actually cared about the words you wrote, you wouldn’t have used them as the basis of a lazy strawman to win an argument on the internet against veganism

          • kartonrealista@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I don’t care about arguing about veganism. Just stop bringing up stuff like this. Also, do you think calling something a “modern holocaust” is not a comparison in terms of scale of harm? As opposed to every other time those words are used?

            Edit: If you want to argue for veganism, stop bringing up Shoah. It’s disgusting, downplaying the severity of the genocide, and earns you no favors with the general population. It has negative convincing power.

            • r1veRRR@feddit.de
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              1 year ago

              It’s 90 billion every year. If their suffering is 15000 less significant, that’s one holocaust a year, every year, since many years. Why are you using Shoah, if holocaust is so obviously only one thing? And why are the voices of holocaust victims/survivors/relatives totally fine to silence? Many have made that comparison, shouldn’t they know best whether it’s comparable???

              You are correct however that this argument is utterly stupid and useless to make, esp. online, where there is zero context.

      • Screwthehole@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        100 corporations contribute 71% of all emissions, and I’m supposed to stop eating the pork I bought from a local farmer? Fuck that noise!

    • jsveiga@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Instead of going vegan or not having kids, I died when I was 5. Because living also creates more greenhouse gasses.

      In fact, having a small footprint is just a matter of choosing how miserable you’re willing to make your life.

      Unfortunately the Earth cannot sustainably support so many people living COMFORTABLY, and eating WHATEVER WE LIKE. The more people, the more miserable is the globally sustainable way of life.

      Curbing population growth - not Thanos-like, but through education and availability of contraceptive methods - is the only way we can all have the cake (and the meat) and eat it.

      Many wealthy countries have their population declining. Maybe if we get to the same level of wealthiness everywhere, less people would engage in procreation.

      In any case, if we just do nothing and the doomsday evangelists are even nearly right, extreme weather, plage and famine caused by climate change will indeed curb the population. Eventually it reaches equilibrium.

      In this case, the faster we get to the edge of the abyss, the quicker the situation will solve itself.

      • Spzi@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        having a small footprint is just a matter of choosing how miserable you’re willing to make your life.

        In many areas yes, but not when it comes to food. A plant based diet is in no way miserable. There are still too many places with bad kitchens making it seem that way, but that’s just a lack of skill on their part.

        I’d say my food experience rather became less miserable when I stopped eating meat, and my footprint decreased by a lot.

        Eventually it reaches equilibrium.

        In this case, the faster we get to the edge of the abyss, the quicker the situation will solve itself.

        If you open the window to ventilate for 20 minutes that’s different from replacing the air in your room in 2 nanoseconds. The violent shockwave of the latter will probably damage your stuff and harm your health.

        Similarly, the speed of climate change matters a lot. It is required for plants and animals to migrate and adapt, for people to migrate and adapt, for infrastructure to be built. It makes all the difference between a devastating blow and adaptation, while the reached equilibrium is the same in both cases.

    • Djennik@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The problem is not the amount of people but how much each individual consumes. Getting meat out of your diet is a simple and a small sacrifice. Besides the health benefits there is also the fact that you don’t contribute to the culling of 70 billion animals per year (of which 40% is probably not eaten and thrown in the trash). Not only that but you don’t contribute to the greatest cause of deforestation, antibiotics resistance, decline of biodiversity, water waste, …

      Besides the global population is steadily stagnating (Africa is still booming) as a lot of countries see population decline (less than 2 children per woman).