Why the Plan to Feed 10 Billion Will Lead to Increased Emissions
Despite intending to cut emissions, this new plan would actually lead to an increase due to its causation of increased population growth.
The plan, as devised by the EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health, is designed to be sustainable enough to feed a world of 10 million people and more.
It includes a large reduction of red meat, an increase in plant protein, and more fruit and vegetables. I won’t go into the technicalities of the plan, but the reasons behind it are our health, sustainability, and greenhouse gas emissions — with sustainability being the main part of it.
The fundamental flaw and biggest problem with the plan, then, stems from its attempts to create a sustainable global diet, to ensure “planetary health”. What this report fails to comprehend and reconcile with its attempts to create a more sustainable diet is that population growth only occurs, and by extension only increases, when there is enough food to support it.
The report certainly succeeds in finding a diet which would sustain 10 billion, but this whole approach is the wrong one. By increasing our capacity so that we can provide for more people (which presumably must be an approach we take…
