No, Vegetarianism Isn’t The Solution to Climate Change
AKA — The Rebuttal I Never Gave Because I Kept Being Cut Off
I had a really illuminating and meandering conversation with an educated and privileged individual recently who firmly believed that converting the entire planet’s population to a vegetarian diet was THE solution to climate change.
It was one of those unique conversations where my lived experience (vegetarian, Indian, Brown woman, active childlessness) coupled with my many hats (climate scientist, marine ecologist, food systems, science communicator) made me feel like I was in the right place at the right time for this ‘debate’.
I know I should have let it go, but I can’t get over the “I’m doing my own research” energy that permeated my conversation with a self-identifying liberal (hereafter “The Contrarian”). Over the course of this circular conversation, I experienced first-hand how education, privilege, and climate anxiety together can be the bricks and mortar used to build a fortress that prevents reality/truth/facts from penetrating.
And so, the conversation had enough of an impact that I wanted to write the rebuttal I never really had the opportunity to deliver in person. I don’t want to overtly call The Contrarian out. But, at the same time, I hope this piece finds its way to them, so that they can marinate on the points I was trying to make. And also, so that they realize their talking points (quoted directly below as section headers) are trafficking in eco-fascism.
“It’s A Carrying Capacity Issue”
I'm not sure you want to align yourself with contemporary eugenicists.
Initially, we were talking about the controversy surrounding tourism in Hawai’i and depleted resources for locals — especially Native Hawaiians. This organically led to a conversation about climate change, where The Contrarian claimed that one obvious solution to climate change is diminishing overpopulation.
Except that overpopulation is a myth that the developed world aims at developing countries to justify their excessive fossil fuel consumption/production.
Much of the developed world is comprised of settler-colonizers who pillaged their way through the developing world — especially the Global South — to enrich themselves, leading to current disparities in standards of living across the planet. Targeting these countries (particularly the ENTIRE CONTINENT of Africa) elides this tragic and violent history.
It also ignores the underlying source of fossil fuel emissions causing climate change: greed in the developed world. North America and Europe comprise only 15% of the global population but are responsible for nearly 40% of all emissions. Thus, the focus should not be on population reduction, but instead on how resources will be equitably distributed in a world affected by climate change (and not hoarded by the ridiculously wealthy).
As an aside, you know you might be in bad company when you’re on the same side as the increasingly autocratic Indian government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It has called for population control despite population growth rates in India decreasing over the past 40ish years.
“Everyone Should Become Vegetarian”
This is a bigger ask than you may realize, and a naive one at that.
The Contrarian suggested that the singular best thing that can be done to resolve climate change is for everyone on the planet to convert to vegetarianism.
There is no doubt that a plant-forward diet (and specifically reducing beef / dairy consumption) would be better for our global CO2 emissions, this argument neglects that climate change has multiple causes that dietary shifts alone will not resolve. And, a fully vegetarian diet actually has a greater carbon footprint than one that limits meat/dairy consumption to once per day (somtimes called a “two-thirds vegan” / “reducetarian” diet). In fact, we need to dramatically decrease food waste, which alone may be responsible for up to 10% of ALL emissions.
Also, the declaration that everyone should become vegetarian ignores the fact that not everyone (particularly poor people) has the luxury of having this choice.
But, most importantly, this — as with the previous and forthcoming arguments — puts the burden of labor on individuals instead of systems for the harms we are collectively experiencing. Rather, corporations are responsible for the bulk of fossil fuel emissions and are most empowered to pull back the reigns on climate change (and political/judicial institutions should be using their regulatory power to hold them accountable).
“Culture Can Change”
But what about unexpected knock-on effects?
When pressed on the fact that vegetariand and non-vegetarian food is a key component of culture, The Contrarian pushed back suggesting that culture is malleable.
This seemingly harmless suggestion doesn’t take into account that many marginalized peopl in the United States have been coerced into food-based cultural shifts through colonialism and slavery, as seen with Navajo Fry Bread and Gullah-Geechee cuisine. While well-established now and rich in their own right, they are connected with a painful past.
And, although The Contrarian contended this way of life is a thing of the past, Subsistence Living continues to be practiced by many Natives reclaiming their heritage and non-Native settlers in rural communities. Indeed, many Native communities are place-based, and they have co-evolved with the nutritional resources around them (they also have a right to access these foods, as sovereign Indigenous Nations). Climate change is already compromising their food availability, but vegetarianism is potentially asking Natives to put their own health at risk.
Additionally, many people’s livelihoods rely on the food system (be it catching fish, raising poultry, or farming oysters). Asking them to find a new occupation, especially if it is one of a few limited options available to them or is part of a familial tradition, is asking for them to make an exceptionally difficult and unfair decision. It also may not better for their well-being or carbon footprint on a personal level, especially when their individual impact in no way compares to that of corporate polluters.
Vegetarian Superiority Is Caste-ist
Frankly, it is a very old-school, elitist, Brahmin thing to say.
Like The Contrarian, I was born into a Brahmin household. Brahmins are at the top of the caste hierarchy (that was brutally enforced by British colonialism to disenfranchise lower castes). Unlike The Contrarian, I would never declare that my vegetarianism makes me superior. And, it was at this moment that I recognized the tone of contemporary Brahmins, many of whom do indeed consider themselves superior because they have the luxury of choosing a plant-exclusive diet.
But, this ignores the fact that pre-Buddhism Hindu Brahmins participated in ritual animal sacrifice and did eat beef! Caste merely described societal function at this point in time, and was not yet a hierarchy. In fact, paralleling several other religious texts, there is a litany of rules concerning what ‘non-Veg’ food Brahmins can eat. The move towards vegetarianism as a component of Hinduism was a political choice, so that Kings could retain power and prevent Buddhism from outcompeting Brahmanism.
And still, many contemporary Brahmins have eschewed their vegetarian diets altogether, such as esteemed Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The Contrarian argued that many of the animals humans eat are sentient beings and worthy of living their own lives, but this argument ignores that humans are not the same as the livestock we raise (and that those comparisons have historically been used as a dehumanizing tactic to prevent so-called inferior groups of people from rising to power).
Productive Ways To Deal With Your Climate Anxiety
Because it’s the only way I can rationalize the toxicity and misinformation that was spewed.
Throughout my conversation with The Contrarian, I was reminded of S-Town, a podcast I binged a few summers ago in which the deceased protagonist, John, suffers from overt climate grief. And, underlying all of these disconnected points that The Contrarian made, I could feel the percolation of climate anxiety; a deep-seated desire to fix this problem.
But, I’m sorry to say that using a decision made for you by your parents and their parents before them (vegetarianism by way of Brahminism) is not an actual solution. And, forcing this “choice” on others also isn’t a solution; in fact, an all-or-nothing approach (vegetarianism or bust!) is more likely to alienate people than onboard them.
We must burrow out of our respective fortresses to grapple with the harsh reality bearing down on us all, using whatever power/platforms/resources we have at our disposal to hold major polluters accountable while lifting up the most marginalized amongst us. And, we must channel our education, privilege, and climate anxiety into actions and solutions instead of creating a false narrative that superficially seems to protect us but ultimately resolves nothing at all.
