Power of (Food) Choice: The Interconnectedness of Diet, Climate Change, Conservation, Health, Culture and Innovation in STEM
“We believe the key to solving the complex problems facing us now and in the future rely on the steadfast dedication and commitment to the scientific pursuit. The dismissal of inconvenient facts must end.” -Dr. Gabriel Montaño, SACNAS past-president
Michelle Barron grew up in Selma, California, a farming town in Fresno County and home to California’s largest beef producer, Harris Ranch. Michelle’s first motivation to become vegetarian was at age ten to support animal welfare. Once in college and after 11 years of following this lifestyle, she then took her commitment to animal rights one step further by becoming vegan.
“As I grew and evolved, [choosing to not eat animals] became more about environmental reasons, my spiritual health and overall well-being. Veganism isn’t just about what you eat or don’t eat. It’s about living a compassionate lifestyle and how I perceive the world.”
Today, Barron identifies as a vegan Latina environmentalist.
“For me, veganism and environmentalism go hand in hand. The impact of our food system plays a critical role in the state of our climate affairs.”
Research shows that the #1 cause of climate change is actually the livestock industry.
In 2006, the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released a report entitled “Livestock’s Long Shadow.” This report, conducted by livestock specialists who normally promote livestock, estimated that 18% of annual worldwide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are attributable to livestock (cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, camels, horses, pigs, and poultry).
Three years later, Dr. Robert Goodland and Mr. Jeff Anhang, Environmental Specialists employed by two UN specialized agencies, the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), published an environmental assessment with a different figure. According to this new analysis, the livestock industry is responsible for at least 51% of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas, or at least 32,564 million tons of CO2e per year. This is more GHGs than from all the planes, trains, ships and automobiles combined (13% for the transportation sector).
It could be argued that for the very first time, scientists were looking at the big picture of animal agriculture and its connection to climate change. Goodland and Anhang used the global standard for measuring GHGs and accounted for nearly all sources of GHG emissions throughout the lifecycle and supply chain of livestock products. Essentially, from the time the animals are born to the moment the meat arrives on the plate. In particular, Goodland and Anhang made sure to factor in major sources that the FAO excluded, such as the breathing of livestock, the amount of land they occupy, and the percentage of methane the animals emit. These are the largest indicators pointing to the accuracy of their 51% figure.
Planet Earth: Land of the Livestock
Globally, 45 percent of all land on earth is used for livestock and feed production. The exponential growth in livestock production (between 73 billion and 82 billion land animals per year), accompanied by large scale deforestation and forest-burning, have caused a dramatic decline in the earth’s ability to photosynthesize. This means much less forest and much more carbon in the atmosphere that otherwise would be absorbed by trees.
Methane and Nitrous Oxide: More Powerful than Carbon Dioxide
Cattle are ruminant animals. Their complex digestive process, called enteric fermentation, releases exorbitant amounts of methane, primarily from eructation (belching), but also from flatulence. Every day, cattle produce 50 to 100 billion gallons of methane (and possibly more).
Methane has a global warming potential (GWP) 86 times that of CO2 over a 20 year time frame and persists in the atmosphere for about 12 years. Though touted as more environmentally friendly, grass-fed cattle are in fact worse for the environment because they emit up to 4 times more methane than factory-farmed ones, or 400% as much methane.
Then there’s nitrous oxide, of which animal agriculture produces 65% of all human-related emissions. It comes from the nitrogen-based fertilizer used in livestock feed production, and from manure emitted by livestock themselves. Nitrous oxide’s GWP is a staggering 264 times greater than CO2, and it stays in the atmosphere for about 114 years.
A 6th Mass Extinction Driven by Mankind
“We all have a place on Mother Earth. It is how we listen to Mother Earth that determines how we become one with her.”
-Dr. Henry Fowler (Navajo), 2017 SACNAS Keynote Speaker and Chair of Mathematics/Physics and Technology Department at Dine College and co-founder of the Navajo Math Circles
Undoubtedly one of the most serious consequences of raising animals for food is the unprecedented loss of biodiversity worldwide or, as scientists are calling it, the era of “biological annihilation.” Wildlife is going extinct at an unprecedented rate due to climate change, habitat destruction, overhunting and overfishing, pollution and invasive species, all of which are directly or indirectly related to human consumption of animals for food (animals that could very well be considered invasive species themselves).
Raising livestock for food and growing animal feed (genetically modified corn and soy) is responsible for up to 91% of rainforest loss in the Amazon (aka the lungs of our planet). In the next 100 years we could lose half of all species on earth and have oceans entirely devoid of fish by the year 2048. “Sustainable” seafood may not truly be sustainable after all. Time is running out and we are quite literally “racing extinction.”
Health Disparities in Native American, African-American and Hispanic Populations
According to the Indian Health Service (IHS), American Indian and Alaska Natives have some of the highest mortality rates in the country, largely due to heart disease and diabetes (the latter being 189% higher compared to other Americans, according to the National Congress of American Indians). For African-Americans, the leading cause of death is heart disease and cancer with high rates of obesity. About four out of five black women are overweight or obese. Out of these groups, Hispanics have the third highest rate of diabetes (12.8%), with heart disease and cancer as the leading causes of death.
Institutionalized Racism Drives Epidemics in Communities of Color
It is no coincidence that these chronic health conditions disproportionately affect underrepresented minorities. Dr. Milton Mills, a vegan M.D. and current Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) National Advisory Board member, says fast food chains are purposely built in poor neighborhoods to target people of color. In the new documentary What the Health featuring Dr. Mills, the DC-based urgent care practitioner says:
“Our government is encouraging Americans of color to eat foods that it knows is going to make them ill. Ultimately, what that boils down to is the government is telling me as an African-American to eat food that’s going to make me ill for no health benefit so that it will benefit [meat and] dairy farmers. That’s a form of institutionalized racism.”
Decolonize Your Diet
“The recovery of the people is tied to recovery of food, since food itself is medicine — not only for the body but also for the soul and the spiritual connection to history, ancestors, and the land.” -Winona LaDuke, Native American environmentalist
Chicana activist Luz Calvo believes the key to the health of our communities and the environment is to “decolonize” our diets. Calvo, a breast cancer survivor and co-author of the popular vegetarian cookbook Decolonize Your Diet, explains what this means:
“This colonization affects the way we eat and disrespects the ancestral knowledge that is held by our communities. We are reclaiming that ancestral knowledge to make ourselves healthy and connected to our ancestors so that we can better engage in struggles for social justice. So we can create a world that honors our ancestors and is sustainable, a world that’s available to the next generation.”
Growing up, Michelle Barron’s family prepared “traditional” Mexican foods. “I still ate rice, beans, and vegetables occasionally, I just left out the meat,” she says. Beef was a main ingredient in dishes like enchiladas and burritos, and fast-food was a staple. Sadly, this diet high in animal products has taken a toll on her family, as the majority of her relatives suffer from obesity and diabetes.
“I’ve noticed that diabetes has become normalized…instead of trying to change their lifestyle, they just take more pills. I think things would really change if people learned how to change their perception of food.”
In the Salinas Valley of California, dubbed “the salad bowl of the nation,” migrant farmworkers and their families cannot afford to eat the antioxidant-rich vegetables they grow, and instead opt for the comforting “cultural” preferences of tacos and tamales — even on the rare occasion when their wives make salads for them. Food access and food security are issues here, of course, but the more deeply rooted issue is colonization.
For Mexican and African-Americans, Ancestral Diets Were Largely Plant-Based
Calvo believes that most Latinos have never truly eaten Mexican food. The indigenous people who lived in Mexico before the Spanish arrived had predominantly plant-based diets centered around corn, beans, wild greens, cactus, herbs, seeds, and squash. Historians have discovered that the Aztecs in Mexico actually outlived the Spaniards by an average of 10 years. Europeans replaced what they deemed “inferior” native foods with wheat, and later on, cheese, flour tortillas, and beef, transforming traditional Mexican cuisine into animal-based dishes that promote disease.
Likewise, traditional African diets are predominantly plant-based, high-fiber diets, featuring okra, sorghum, and millet. “These traditional diets usually contain very little animal food because [West Africans] don’t eat [animal-based] meat at every meal,” says Dr. Mills. “When they do eat meat, they typically eat it in much smaller proportions than we see in Western countries.”
Vegetarianism Popular in Many Pre-Colonial Native American Tribes
As with indigenous Mexicans and Africans, Native Americans also began to eat more meat following contact with European settlers. Over the last few decades, Dr. Rita Laws, a long-time vegetarian Native American (Choctaw and Cherokee), has been shattering stereotypes that Native Americans regularly consumed wild game. She’s discovered the opposite and that prior to 1492, the Choctaw ate meat very sparingly. “Agriculture was so important to our ancestors that they really focused on that to the exclusion of meat,” she says. “Obviously some tribes were more dependent on meat before colonization — like the areas with lots of buffalo — but the tendency overall was to eat less meat and focus on a plant-based diet.”
For Ojibway and Cherokee artist and activist Linda Fisher, she is vegan because she believes being so brings her closer to her Native American teachings. In a 2011 interview with The Scavenger, she said:
“The Indians of yesterday were true conservationists. They understood the inherent dangers of overtaxing the earth and her creatures. So much so, in fact, that no species would ever be hunted to scarcity or depletion, not even for religious purposes. I believe that [Chief Seattle] would be pained by the deaths of millions of untold feathered spirits for the sake of meat that we do not need.”
The Future of Food
“If you were starting from scratch figuring out a way to deliver protein to human beings, you wouldn’t use an animal. Science would tell you to do something different.” -Amol Deshpande, Partner, Kleiner Perkins
The food tech revolution is upon us. Start-up companies such as Beyond Meat, JUST (formerly Hampton Creek), and Impossible Foods, to name a few, are well on their way to making meat, dairy and eggs obsolete by creating products that taste so close to the real thing even meat-eaters are satisfied. These companies are challenging the archaic $48 trillion global meat industry by creating and instilling new ways of thinking and eating for the masses.
“We have a very large team now of scientists working at Beyond Meat,” says Ethan Brown, founder and CEO of the 8-year old company that’s rebuilding meat directly from plants. “Many of them were formally in medical research of some form, working on cures to various diseases. I feel it was a natural transition for [these scientists] to go into preventative medicine and join our company.” The company’s newest product, the Beyond Burger, has 0mg of cholesterol, less saturated and total fat, and more protein and iron compared to its animal-based beef counterpart, making it by far the healthier choice.
Not only that, it’s also much more environmentally friendly. The average veggie burger requires only about 42 gallons of water to produce, compared to a quarter-pound hamburger, which requires between 53 and 660 gallons of water (this includes irrigation of the grains (corn and soy) and grasses used for feed, plus water for drinking and processing). The amount of GHGs one beef patty produces is also shocking: 0.126 pounds of methane and 4 pounds of GHGs. “Because meat and dairy analogs are produced without the GHG-intensive processes used in raising livestock — such as animals’ CO2 and methane emissions, and usage of land for growing feed and grazing livestock — the [plant-based] analogs clearly generate a small fraction of the GHGs attributable to livestock products,” says Goodland and Anhang.
The minimal ecological footprint of veggie burgers, such as the Beyond Burger, is why Brown considers the work his scientists do as part of a global initiative with a global impact; one that is imperative to solving today’s most pressing problems.
“If we can become that group of people who separate meat from animals, that’s an enormous contribution to the human species and to the world. I find that very motivating and I think [our food scientists] find it motivating as well.”
Plant-Based Food Science: An Innovative and Efficient Way to Solve Climate Change
According to Brown, there is a smarter way to produce food. “If you were to rethink it, you would never consider using the animal as the conversion mechanism. You would come up with something that’s more efficient.” This is what Brown and his team of scientists are doing. “We are literally taking plant protein and we’re running it through heating, cooling and pressure versus what the animal is doing, which is taking plants and running them through their digestive and musculoskeletal system, and converting that into muscle, or meat. We are providing the same service, only more directly.”
Working as a scientist at the intersection of food and innovation is challenging, exhilarating and rewarding. Perhaps most exciting of all is the endless potential for growth and improvement. So far, only about 8% of the world’s plant proteins have been explored as potential meat alternatives. “Once we get the burger perfect, we’ll then go into pork, bacon, and even filet mignon until we’ve built out a complete plant-based meat case. That to me is exciting.”
Brown’s Advice: Focus on the Problem First, then the Solution
Brown’s key advice to undergraduate STEM students who are unsure of what major or research to pursue?
“Don’t assume that the solution will come until you have fully marinated all of your mental faculties in the problem. New things can spring forth if we fully wear the challenge facing us, and remain suspicious of well-worn solutions and the assumptions underpinning them.”
For Brown, the problem was always climate change, leading him down a career path in electricity restructuring and alternative energy including fuel cells. Eventually, his childhood love of animals and entrepreneurial spirit inspired him to establish Beyond Meat in 2009. “If I just went along with the crowd, I’d still be working in alternative energy,” says Brown.
“If you’re interested in pursuing science to help both people and the rest of the creatures we share the planet with, first think about the problem and you’ll be surprised how often you come back to origin of the protein we put in our bodies.”
Diversify the Field: Become a Livestock and Climate Change Researcher
As with all disciplines in STEM, we need diverse perspectives and backgrounds to create the smartest teams that will go on to help solve society’s biggest challenges. To do this, we need underrepresented minorities to participate in researching how animal agriculture drives climate change. Becoming a scientist who contributes to the growing research on livestock and climate change is not only fascinating; it’s needed now more than ever before. Food sustainability researchers like Dr. Richard Oppenlander have spent the last few decades studying the impacts our food choices have on the earth.*
Similarly, Goodland and Anhang’s groundbreaking research has made them thought leaders in this field. Their 51% figure continues to be widely-cited in various places, including the New York Times, the documentary Cowspiracy, by environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio, Bill Gates, and in a UN General Assembly report. Additionally, Anhang’s organization Chomping Climate Change is inspiring positive change by encouraging individuals to replace meat, dairy and eggs with better plant-based alternatives, in addition to planting more trees in our communities.*
People of Color (POC) Plant-Based Activists: The Inclusive Global Movement
The vegan and vegetarian movements are often criticized for being mostly white, elitist movements that exclude the underprivileged. However, this is changing today as more people of color, like Michelle Barron, are choosing to indigenize their diets and ditch the meat, dairy and eggs. The following plant-based scientists of color understand the connections our diets have to science, culture, and environmental degradation. Here’s why you need to follow them:
- Cynthia Malone, Conservation Scientist
“Ecowomanist” Malone has been vegan for 11 years. Before going full vegan, she was a vegetarian for two years. Follow her on Twitter: @cynth_malone
“Veganism is a core part of my praxis as a conservation scientist and ecofeminist. We have clear evidence demonstrating the negative impacts of industrial animal agriculture and I have the privilege to afford to eat a plant-based diet to minimize my participation in the industry.”
Malone goes on to say,
“ However, this is just a part of the work. As an ecofeminist, I understand the oppression of nonhuman animals to be very linked to my own. I believe it is vital that we account for the deeply personal and complex relationships people have with nonhuman animals. There is a danger in veganism that is centered narrowly on animal rights and does not account for the ways in which marginalized groups, especially Black and brown people, suffer deep inequities within the food system, from production to consumption. A key tenet of racism has been the animalization of Black and brown people. Many communities associate meat (as absent referent to animal flesh as well as more intentional conceptualizations of animals as food) with long-standing rituals that reinforce tradition and ancestral connections. We need to be able to acknowledge all of these realities, in addition to the rights of animals to live free and well, in our dialogue and praxis.”
2. Jesse Lopez, Chicano Computational Scientist
“Being vegetarian is empowering because I’m essentially voting against the most damaging agricultural practices with every purchase.”
Lopez works at Axiom Data Science managing ocean and atmospheric data and models. He’s been vegetarian for 15 years. Follow him on Twitter: @_yosoyjay
“I became vegetarian in response to learning about the severe environmental costs associated with industrial agribusiness,” says Jesse. “The amount of water, energy, and pollution associated with animal-derived food products is staggeringly higher than a plant-based diet.”
3. Kevin L. Keys, Latino Genomic and Bioinformatics Scientist
“Years ago, I learned that I should seek to change what I can directly control. Going vegetarian is a particularly empowering change because I am the only person in control of my diet.”
Keys has been vegetarian since 2007. A SACNAS member and 2017 Linton-Poodry SACNAS Leadership Institute (LPSLI) alumnus, Keys says the turning point for him was when he read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
“In deciding to adopt a vegetarian diet, I feel like I made a conscious choice to improve the world. Given what I learned about the negative effects of meat production on the planet, adopting a vegetarian diet is one way for me to protest what I see as an unethical and unhealthy form of producing food.”
Follow him on Twitter: @klkeysb
Reversing Climate Change, One Plant-Based Meal at a Time
“Eating less animal products is a simple way for folks to regularly decrease the impact they inflict on critical components of the global environment, ranging from local watersheds to greenhouse gas concentrations.”-Jesse Lopez
Climate scientists and policy experts have proposed the old (and failed) strategy to avert climate catastrophe with 53 trillion dollars of renewable energy infrastructure installed over the next 20 years. However, there is substantial evidence to conclude that we are already out of time if we are to reverse climate change before it’s too late. Following Goodland and Anhang’s analysis, the environmental scientists recommend a new strategy:
“Replacing at least a quarter of today’s livestock products with better alternatives made from plant protein would both reduce emissions and allow forest to regenerate on a vast amount of land, which could then absorb excess atmospheric carbon to reduce it to a safe level. This may be the only pragmatic way to reverse climate change in the next five years as needed.”
A shift like this in global food production won’t be possible unless we , the consumers, make it possible. Just as millennials are putting pressure on an archaic industrial-food system and winning, today conscious consumers are standing against the meat, dairy and egg industries every time they refuse to purchase animal products and buy healthier, plant-based alternatives instead.
At a time when the current administration denies climate change and withdraws the United States from the Paris Agreement, as record-breaking storms like the hurricanes we saw in Houston, Puerto Rico, and Florida become the norm, and as our communities of color remain the most affected by climate change and natural disasters, it is imperative to consider the impact our food choices have on Mother Earth. The survival of our species — and all species we share this planet with — depend on it.
About the Author: Chiara V. Cabiglio
Chiara was the SACNAS Social Media and Communications Coordinator from December 2014–2017. After receiving her BA in Community Studies (Social Justice) from UC Santa Cruz in 2011, Chiara volunteered in Monteverde, Costa Rica at Cloud Forest School where she replanted rainforest with students. Chiara is self-taught in social media and marketing, having learned hands on during her internships with Everyone’s Harvest, Island Conservation, and other nonprofits. She’s also worked closely with Mr. Anhang on fundraising efforts for his organization Chomping Climate Change. Prior to joining SACNAS, Chiara was the Social Media and Marketing Specialist for UC Santa Cruz. A passionate vegan conservation activist, Chiara has been vegan since June 2016. Before this, she was vegetarian for 11 years. Chiara is excited to begin her new journey in a career in mental health and wellness, and is currently a graduate student at Brandman University studying Counseling Psychology. She’s also a student member of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology. In the future, Chiara aspires to help clients in private practice as a spiritual Marriage and Family Therapist, where she will continue to promote the benefits of a plant-based lifestyle.
Resources:
- Video: Cowspiracy
- Facts: Cowspiracy.com
- Video: Livestock Create a Major Methane Problem
- Facts: What the Health documentary
- Dr. Milton Mills: Traditional African Diet vs Today’s Plate of Plantation Food
- Human Ancestors Were Nearly All Vegetarians — Scientific American
- Video: Methane-Collecting Bags Hooked Up to Cows
- Mr. Jeff Anhang —Interested in learning more about livestock and climate change research, and/or how to get involved with Chomping Climate Change? Email Chiara at consciouseats4life@gmail.com and she’ll connect you with him.
- Dr. Oppenlander — Contact him to learn more about being a food sustainability researcher and how you can get involved.
- Here are 15 POC Vegan Activists You Need to Follow — Mercy for Animals
