Meat vs. Plant-Based Diets: Four Common Climate Myths

Social media is full of false and misleading claims about links between food and climate change

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Photo: BBC
Photo: BBC
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

Scientists have long claimed that by changing our diet, replacing meat and dairy products with plant-based foods, we can help in the fight against climate change.

However, changing how the entire planet is fed is not easy.

For one, the choice of food is limited in some places.

People's culture is also important, as is the amount of food we eat or the way it is produced (with more or less impact on the environment).

On top of that, social media is full of false and misleading claims about the links between food and climate change.

Here we have explored the four most common.

Claim number 1: Meat does not cause climate change

This tweet incorrectly states that "red meat does not cause climate change".

The video from the tweet also suggested that this "lie" was being spread by polluting industries to "shift the blame" for global warming onto animals.

Although the burning of fossil fuels for energy remains the largest contributor to climate change, food production also produces huge amounts of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, that cause global warming.

Moreover, scientists estimate that up to a third of all greenhouse gases from around the world can be linked to food systems.

Of these, more than half are related to the production of animal-derived food.


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But not all food of animal origin is the same: beef and lamb have been shown to have particularly harmful effects on the planet.

This is because cows and sheep emit methane into the atmosphere.

They also feed on pastures, which are often created by cutting down carbon-storing trees and forests.

This has led the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to suggest that "switching to a plant-based diet" could lead to "significant reductions" in emissions.

"For those who don't want or can't become vegetarians, there are alternatives with lower emissions, such as sustainable poultry, eggs or farmed fish," says Dr. Magdalena Jensen, an expert in food systems and climate impact at Concepcion University in Chile.

Claim number 2: A plant-based diet is not healthy

In a TikTok video viewed several thousand times, a proponent of a meat-based diet wrongly claimed that human beings "were not built to eat plants."

He suggested that eating vegetables could cost people their health and went so far as to claim that "plants are trying to kill you".

These views do not coincide with those of the majority of members of the health community.

The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests a diet "primarily plant-based and very low in salt, saturated fat and added sugar" as an integral part of a healthy lifestyle.

She also says that limiting red meat and processed foods (such as sausages) can prevent heart disease, cancer or diabetes.

"A diet rich in plant-based food and with as little animal-based food as possible contributes to better health and brings other benefits," says Dr. Afton Halloran, an expert in healthy and sustainable nutrition from Denmark.


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Such a diet, however, can carry with it certain risks.

"Individuals who eat a vegan diet should be aware of the risk of potential nutrient deficiencies," she says.

Not all plant-based foods have the same benefits: what's more, some plant-based substitutes, such as meat alternatives, can qualify as ultra-processed.

This means they can contain high levels of salt, saturated fat and sugar - all of which have been shown to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and other health problems.

Claim number 3: Food of plant origin is more harmful to the planet

"They claim that eating meat is bad for the planet," reads the tweet above.

"But they don't say (perhaps because of the lobby) that one almond in California needs 12 liters of water, bananas 160, and a kilogram of avocado 2.000 liters of water."

Posts like this one suggest that the food favored by climate-conscious consumers is more harmful to the environment than meat.

This is not necessarily so.

Take na primer avocado.

It is true that growing avocados requires about 2.000 liters of water (on average) per kilogram of this fruit, according to research by the Delft Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands.

By any standard, that's a lot of water - and, in countries like Peru or Chile, avocado production is known to put a lot of pressure on water resources.

However, producing just one kilogram of beef can require even more water: on average, about 15.000 liters, according to the Water Footprint Network.

A large percentage of the world's avocados originate from Latin America, which also means that they have to travel long distances to reach consumers around the world, using means of transport that mostly consume fossil fuels.

This has led some social media users to accuse climate-conscious consumers of "hypocrisy" for opting for food items that are not locally grown.

But large quantities of beef are also transported around the world every day: just look at Brazil, the world's largest beef exporter, which sends thousands of tons of this meat to China every year.

It is also worth noting that, for most food products, less than 10 percent of their greenhouse gas emissions go to transport.

"What we eat (and the environmental impact of its production) is more important than where it comes from," says Danijel Blum, an Argentinian expert on sustainable food systems.

Claim #4: The 'Elites' have conspired to control you

Posts falsely linking dietary changes to conspiracy theories can be found in multiple languages.

The tweet above, written in Russian, claims that the "elite" are trying to "convince the public that they should eat bugs."

"What is hidden behind this mass initiative to radically change our diet?", he wonders enigmatically.

Posts like this one draw on well-known conspiracy theories in which wealthy and powerful individuals conspire in secret to limit people's freedoms.

Changing diets to help fight climate change - allegedly by forcing people to eat bugs and insects - is seen as part of their evil plans.

There is no evidence to support any of these claims.

Moreover, in countries such as Thailand, Mexico or Ghana, insects have long been an integral part of the human diet.

These claims exploit honest, deep-rooted feelings of injustice and inequality among people.

In some low-income countries, where the diet may not be sufficiently diverse, meat and dairy products remain key sources of protein and micronutrients.

In others, eating meat can be experienced as a luxury reserved for those wealthy enough to afford it.

For this reason, when politicians, governments or international bodies call on people to change their diet, some may perceive these calls as unfair, elitist or even non-colonialist.

"While the call is understandable from a sustainability and ethical standpoint, it's not entirely feasible in our context right now," says Richard Kachungu, a food systems expert who works with the Emerging Young Farmers Initiative in Zambia.


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Research also shows that the potential economic damage from limited meat consumption may disproportionately affect poorer countries, where farming and livestock farming may still be key sources of income.

"Excessive meat consumption needs to be drastically reduced first in high- and middle-income countries," says Evans Mushwahili Ladema of the Lake District Food System Network, a non-profit organization in Kenya.

In these countries, dietary changes remain largely a matter of personal choice: no government has yet introduced a ban on meat or dairy consumption for climate reasons, and there is no indication that such a thing is planned in the future.

However, "what we eat simply has to change," says Dr. Halloran.


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