Is Eating Protein Destroying the Planet?

“Recent data show that green house gas (GHG) emissions for producing protein that satisfies the Recommended Dietary Allowance for essential amino acids is not reduced if protein from beef or milk is replaced by protein from beans, peas, wheat, rice, or cauliflowers. Only soybeans may show an advantage in terms of GHG emission.” -Magkos et al., 2020 Advances in Nutrition [1]

Personally, I only eat red meat a few times a month. More than 90% of my meat consumption is poultry because I don’t like chickens, and when it comes to carbon they seem to be the most efficient terrestrial meat production method at 2.3 kg of feed for 1 kg of meat in comparison to conventional cattle which may be about 43 to 1* [2]. As a family, we then pay double our estimated carbon tax to save rainforests and reforest tropical areas as these seem to be some of the most effective strategies to combat climate change [3, 4].

But, let’s check my bias and see if I am barking up the right tree and what potential place cattle and other ruminant livestock have in our current food supply from a climate standpoint.