In the last meeting, we learned how GMOs can address the sustainability crisis. In the next meeting, we will review three TED Talks which offer other solutions for sustainability, two of them involving cows. There is a movement to eat less or no meat, primarily beef, to promote health and improve sustainability. This theme has been incorporated in the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, DGAC, report, and is its most controversial recommendation of many controversial recommendations.
The primary argument against the DGAC recommendation is that the issue of sustainability was outside its charter and expertise. Focusing just on the efficiency of plant based diets ignores the role that animals, especially cattle, can play in soil management. The real problem are the concentrated feedlots, not animals in our diet. Many believe that grazing animals will play a major role in food sustainability and removing carbon from the atmosphere.
The third solution for sustainability, eating insects, is really a serious suggestion but is often considered a joke. Rather than explaining it here we will let the TED speaker make his case.
HERE is Mark Bittman admitting that saturated fat may not be harmful, but he still believes in a plant based diet due to environmental considerations.
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