People are used to seeing stark warnings on tobacco products alerting them about the potentially deadly risks to health. Now a study suggests similar labelling on food could help them make wiser choices about not just their health, but the health of the planet.
The research, by academics at Durham University, found that warning labels including a graphic image – similar to those warning of impotence, heart disease or lung cancer on cigarette packets – could reduce selections of meals containing meat by 7-10%.
It is a change that could have a material impact on the future of the planet. According to a recent YouGov poll, 72% of the UK population classify themselves as meat-eaters. But the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which advises the government on its net zero goals, has said the UK needs to slash its meat consumption by 20% by 2030, and 50% by 2050, in order to meet them.
I’m not eating Soylent so you can reduce carbon emissions. why don’t you put some restrictions on breeding?
soylent is awesome.
it’s fine but it ain’t no cheezburger
burger and a shake is a good dinner.
Ask them to make a cheeseburger flavor.
Unless they can make it also kill an animal, I ain’t interested. The suffering is necessary for the flavor.
I remember when these were introduced on cigarette packs. For a while there was a trend of “collecting all the pics”, while other found a nice business in selling “cigarette pack holder” that would just mask the pictures. I’m not sure any of that was the initial goal.
I wonder how applying this to food would turn out, seeing that a fair share of people are well informed of the effect we have on the climate already but simply don’t care.
LOL. Big oil is hard at work. They want to get out of this one scot-free with their “mah quarterly profits”. Now they’re running after people’s food. Get the fuck outta here with this shit. I don’t care what they put on the package, I’m still eating my food. You go enjoy your private jets, yachts and billions of dollars and let me at least enjoy a fucking steak/burger. I hate this shit so much.
I watched this video about how reducing meat consumption isn’t the silver bullet it’s made out to be. I’d really like to hear what other people think about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGG-A80Tl5g
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=sGG-A80Tl5g
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
This seems like rather an optimistic headline, seeing as the article also says that the results from the study were “not statistically signifiant”.
Considering how meat is in most things, you’d think that it would just oversaturate people with warnings, and they would just end up ignoring it. Similar to how people more or less ignore California’s Proposition 65 in the USA, because it’s so broad, and the thresholds are so low that basically everything has a label saying “This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer”. Anything significant gets lost in the noise.
Ha! Love it! Do it! Not like there is any lack of studies to show the health dangers of meat.
- Conclusion: Red and processed meat intakes were associated with modest increases in total mortality, cancer mortality, and cardiovascular disease mortality.
- The study found that people who ate two servings per week of red meat or processed meat had a 3% to 7% higher risk (respectively) of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke, and a 3% higher risk of death from all causes.
- observed strong correlations of dietary HCA intake and consumption of fried and processed meat with DNA adduct levels in breast tissue of 44 women
Won’t ever happen in the US tho. The meat industry is so protective that a lot of states have food libel laws, as well as gag laws that’s limit filming of slaughter houses. If something is so obviously safe, weird how you can’t talk about it’s risks or show its production.
We can’t forget how wasteful meat is as a food supply. Which is sorta obvious when you think about it for 5 seconds. Feeding cows edible food, drinkable water, on farmable land for several years to only get a handful of meals out of them is just silly inefficient.
And that’s just the data, not even going in to ethics. Which, come on. Cut a cow, they bleed, yell and flee. If you cut their young, they attack. Just like we do. Does it matter if they can’t talk? The question is, can they suffer? (yes)
Feeding cows edible food, drinkable water, on farmable land
most cows eat mostly grass. the bulk of the water they get is the water in the grass.
I would love to know where you’re finding all that delicious grass fed beef, because here in America it’s almost all corn-fed.
Industrial beef production in the US is crazy and has tons of problems, not just the feeding of the cattle with something it would not normally eat (and which is actually not good for their digestive system) with the associated preventive use of antibiotics and such.
In the rest of the World were Corn Farming is nowhere near the powerful lobby as in the US (you know, the kind of country were they didn’t put massive duty taxes on the much cheaper cane sugar in order to make High-Frutose Corn Syrup competitive) and regulations on the agro industry are lot tighter, those problems are a lot less.
This not to say your point is not right, more to say that whilst your viewpoint definitelly applies to a large fraction of the industry worldwide, so does the point of the person you replied to.
your beef isn’t corn-fed. it’s grass-fed, grain-finished. they don’t label it grass fed unless it’s NOT grain-finished.
But “finishing” is most of the weight gain of the animal and all the flavor.
It’s like arguing all cows are milk-fed because they were calves once.
It’s like arguing all cows are milk-fed because they were calves once.
i’m not arguing all cows fit the definition of “grass fed”. i’m saying most cows mostly eat grass.
But “finishing” is most of the weight gain of the animal and all the flavor.
no, it’s not. its about 4-6 months of an 18-20 month lifespan. most of their growing is done when they get to the feed lot.
edit:
The US is highly unusual in just how much Corn dominates food production and that most definitelly impacts the beef production which does included the feeding of corn to cattle (it’s actually what creates the “marbling” in american beef) which would otherwise not be done because it’s actually bad for the digestive system of cattle (there’s a book called “The Omnivore’s Dilema” that’s well worth reading) and is linked to other problems like the preventive use of antibiotics with cattle because the animals are more susceptive to disease (which in turn affect humans because it leads to increased antibiotic resistance in bacteria).
However in countries were Corn is not so insanelly dominant, the cattle is actually grown the proper way, so mainly grass fed as per your illustration.
Both you and the other poster are correct, IMHO, it’s just that each is talking about a very different locally dominant version of the beef production industry than the other.
each is talking about a very different locally dominant version of the beef
no, we’re both talking about american beef.
Are you a bot?
lmao
No. Just a vegan who has been around awhile and keeps a cheat sheet of sources. Poke around in my history, I talk to lots of people about lots of things.
That’s cool and all but I’m gonna keep eating meat lol
I’m not going to argue with your sentiment, but your above arguments are either weak or factually wrong. This doesn’t help your cause.
A less then 10% increase in health risks is really a deciding factor, particularly against a cultural and dietary staple to many.
As for beef production, time to slaughter is often between 6 to 8 months, and not years.
I wonder who is your target audience for posts like this. People who made the choice to eat meat on the basis of rational deliberation but are missing some key facts?
Pretty much everyone hopefully knows that meat is not great for the environment, is more wasteful to produce simply due to thermodynamics, that red meat is not very healthy, and that the ethics of eating meat are pretty clear cut.
We just don’t care cause it’s tasty as fuck. No amount of facts and sound ethical arguments will make a steak not taste amazing.
edit: for what it’s worth, I don’t care if they put warnings on meat. Doesn’t make it any less tasty.
No amount of facts and sound ethical arguments will make a steak not taste amazing.
You love to see it folks. Full support for your selfish, sadistic, nihilism in the face of science, empathy or reason. Long as you are enjoying yourself then who cares about the details?
Just gotta hope no one with more power, influence or capitol feels simmiliar when it’s time to consider others. Might be a rough world if everyone says “fuck it, lol idc”.
I take selfish and nihilistic but not sadistic. I don’t enjoy the fact that animals suffer for my enjoyment. It just doesn’t bother me all that much. It’s just part of life.
Yep. 100% this. I’m not going plant based. I’m well aware meat isn’t great for the environment, but my single personal choice won’t make any difference to the industry, and will only result in me hating the little food I eat even more.
Plant based in general is textures that are so repulsive to eat that I’d rather starve.
I wonder who is your target audience for posts like this.
Their own righteous self-aggrandizing ego.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
People are used to seeing stark warnings on tobacco products alerting them about the potentially deadly risks to health.
The research, by academics at Durham University, found that warning labels including a graphic image – similar to those warning of impotence, heart disease or lung cancer on cigarette packets – could reduce selections of meals containing meat by 7-10%.
According to a recent YouGov poll, 72% of the UK population classify themselves as meat-eaters.
But the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which advises the government on its net zero goals, has said the UK needs to slash its meat consumption by 20% by 2030, and 50% by 2050, in order to meet them.
Researchers believe their findings could help encourage changes in gastronomic choices that could ultimately benefit the environment.
“As warning labels have already been shown to reduce smoking as well as drinking of sugary drinks and alcohol, using a warning label on meat-containing products could help us achieve this if introduced as national policy.”
The original article contains 416 words, the summary contains 165 words. Saved 60%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
“how can we shift responsibility to the consumer today?”
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Eh, in all fairness the meat & dairy industry is one thing that we as consumers really do need to take a bulk of responsibility for. I say that as a devout meat eater.
BUT, governments could go a long way by not subsidising dairy and meat and instead subsidising protein alternatives. It’s fucking nuts to me that it costs more for me to buy plant protein.
(Before the die hard vegans come at me saying you don’t need to eat pseudo (plant) proteins to eat less meat, please remember you’re trying to convert people that are familiar and enjoy one diet to another. You’re not going to encourage anyone by advocating a cold-turkey or 0% meat approach. I hate that I have to put this disclaimer here, but I’m fed up with arguing with puritanical vegans that overshadow pragmatism.)
meat & dairy industry is one thing that we as consumers really do need to take a bulk of responsibility for.
wrong.
Nice, well-supported argument.
i presented exactly as much evidence as they did.
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which one?
Do you need evidence to support the popular theory that no one has a gun to your head at the grocery store saying “buy that ground beef”?
whether i buy beef or not does not change whether the industry continues.
If no one buys beef, there would be no beef industry, they don’t produce stuff for fun.
the meat & dairy industry is one thing that we as consumers really do need to take a bulk of responsibility for
No, the capitalists that put profit before the well being of the planet, the consumer, and their products are to blame and should be held responsible, not the people just trying to live their lives under a system imposed on us for the benefit of a small few (and before the die hard vegans come at me - I am a vegan, I just don’t think the problems we’re facing are because other people eat meat, but because capitalism has made meat in to an industry).
The thing is, you don’t have to eat as much meat. If people cut their meat intake by 25%, we would cut GHG emissions from the food industry by 25%.
If people cut their meat intake by 25%, we would cut GHG emissions from the food industry
i doubt it. but do you have a plan to get there?
Capitalism doesn’t endlessly produce, it produces to meet demand. Sometimes the “demand” can consist of subsidies to the industry with the intention of lowering price to consumers, but with the consequence of potentially creating more waste. I’ve read about farmers dumping excess product out because subsidies “bought” too much product to fit on shelves (aka consumers didn’t buy enough to satisfy the greed for profit). Heaven forbid that excess product help people in need, for that may hurt the bottom line.
You honestly said it best in the first thing you said. …“capitalists that put profit before”… everything else. Pure capitalists, while mostly if not entirely evil, do not pollute for the fun of it. They pollute because of greed. If they aren’t profiting from polluting, they’ll (try to) find another way to profit. It’s all they know, a literal one track mind.
That is definitely not to say that their carelessness while chasing profit is okay. It’s harmful and evil. But it is largely just that, carelessness. A pure capitalist cares of nothing other than personal gain. And a public corporation in capitalist society must put shareholder profits ahead of all else by law. The only things they must adhere to in pursuit of profit are other laws, and even then only if the penalty for breaking the law hurts profits more than ignoring the law. This is by design, however terrible that design may be. Examples of this are everywhere. Children illegally hired in packing plants, illegal union busting, etc.
Perhaps the most brazen examples are car manufacturers doing cost-benefit analysis on whether to issue a recall on defective cars. Literally teams of experts calculating whether it will be cheaper to recall and fix dangerous defects, or pay out lawsuits when people get hurt/die. Spoiler: they can, have, and do choose to eat the cost of lawsuits when it is calculated to be cheaper than a recall. And yes, if you live in a capitalist society your life has a dollar amount attached to it (roughly $7.5 million as of 2020 according to FEMA). Your social security number may as well be a barcode placed on product.
Sorry, I got a little sidetracked. What I’m ultimately trying to get at is, we as consumers will have to take responsibility for consuming less because industry will do its’ best to meet demand as long as it is profitable to do so. I think switching subsidies to alternative, less polluting foods is a great solution because it (in theory) works on multiple fronts.
By not subsidizing the meat & dairy industry, industry will be forced to raise cost to consumers or lose money. A higher cost to consumers means consumers will be more open to alternative options. If the options that are better for the environment are then subsidized to lower cost to consumers they become an attractive option.
Example: If the average meat eating, non-eco minded consumer has the choice between paying $50 for a pound of real meat, or $50 for a pound of meat alternative that tastes identical, they’ll choose real meat nearly every time. Now give that same consumer an option of $10 for a pound of meat alternative (whether it tastes identical or not) and the mental math changes considerably. And honestly I doubt the price difference would have to be that drastic to have a noticeable impact on consumer buying habits. Especially when you take into account that people are trending towards being more eco aware.
I’m gonna end this here before I go on ranting all day. /Rant
Tldr; capitalism sucks. Subsidizing meat alternatives seems like a decent idea. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. I hope you all have a wonderful day, and achieve all of your dreams. Please leave me alone :)
we as consumers will have to take responsibility
wrong
Capitalism doesn’t endlessly produce, it produces to meet demand.
industry creates its own demand
No, we don’t.
Good point, you’ve convinced me.
Apparently people consume a lot more meat than they need and even than it’s healthy to consume (though it heavilly depends on the country and the eating habits of the population) so there is room for huge improvement in greenhouse gas emissions from the industry AND health-outcomes by campaigning to reduce meat consumption (rather than the absolutist and rather moralist idea that people should become vegetarians or even vegans).
Also I’m quite weary about any proposed solution involving moving some of the current meat consumption to processed and ultra-processed protein alternatives: we keep getting study after study associating processed and especially ultra-processed food to all kinds of health problems.
United States federal government spends $38 billion every year subsidizing the meat and dairy industries
Whose responsibility is it what to consume, if not the consumer’s?
consumption doesn’t emit greenhous gasses: production does. who is responsible for production?
What method of producing meat that doesn’t emit greenhouse gases do you propose?
“Consumption doesn’t emit greenhouse gases, production does”, that doesn’t really make sense. If no one consumed meat one year, much less meat would be produced the next year, leading to less greenhouse gases.
it seems like you understand that all the emissions are in the production but you’re incredulous and proposing and impossible hypothetical to support your position.
“You will own nothing and you will be happy”
when no burger :(
They will have them, just not us
GTFO Diogenes
Oh boohoo we can’t keep doing unsustainable stuff forever, so sorry.
Tens of thousands of people across Europe already don’t own anything anymore because of recent calamities caused by climate change, yet people continue to bring in this stupid phrase trying to say that the solution will be worse than what we are already going through because of the many mistakes we made in managing resources, of which food production is one.
That… Doesn’t apply in this context
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Eyup… Energy, construction and transport contributes the most, with energy being the mother of all emissions:
The right way to read that chart is “20% of emissions is in making energy for people, 70% of emissions is making energy for literally everything else”. If you consider that my other major personal sources of emissions are driving, domestic heat/hot water, and electricity, that’s saying 1/5 of my personal emissions are just from what it takes to provide my food.
But meat is damaging for more reasons than emissions. It’s also a major source of excessive water consumption, land use, antibiotic resistance, and pollution of potable water sources (runoff from excrement and chemicals used in the production of food for livestock, which is actually the majority of food grown…which is another reason…it’s just inefficient AF. Our food eats way more food than we do, and almost all necessary micro and (and all macronutrients) are available directly from the plants anyway.
I’m not saying we all need to be plant based, but the typical American diet is far too focussed on the meat. It’s practically heresy to go a meal without consuming the flesh or excretions of at least one beast. Simply put I think it’s unsustainable to continue consuming meat at this rate, and literally impossible to change the meat industry to grow meat more ethically and sustainably (as in, there isn’t enough arable land in the world to sustainably and “ethically” (in the modern sense of free range/pasture raised-and-finished, limited antibiotic use, etc) grow meat at the rates we are consuming it. I think it’s more immediately achievable to change that attitude and reduce consumption first and foremost.
Also I do agree that roads should be made of more sustainable materials (though improving mass transit would be an even bigger win, IMO. Make sections of cities car-free (save for emergency services, local deliveries, trash pickup, busses, etc) easily accessible and interlinked by mass transit and park-and-rides from the suburbs. Make most commutes by train/subway faster and easier than driving and people will switch. Bikes and scooters available at every stop. Make employers provide transit and bike/scooter passes. Incentivize employers having hybrid and WFH environments. So much stuff we could be doing, but tearing up or paving over roads that still have useful life left in them shouldn’t be among them.
That’s all false though.
We need to do all of it, it’s not an either-or. That luxury is long gone.
Cattle don’t have any impact though.
That’s a weird take. Methane emissions are one impact, land use change another. There are even studies arguing in both directions.
Meat production is a main driver of rainforest deforestation. All three of these claims are well documented and easily searchable.
So either way, it’s evidently wrong to say cattle don’t had any impact.
There’s no rainforest in the UK.
Please focus on curbing your own satisfaction, so the oil industry can continue to be the biggest polluter AND make money hand over fist.
The oil industry is, of course, doing all that polluting for the sheer fun of it. Our collective consumption habits, esp. in the PRIVILEGED western countries, have absolutely nothing to do with it.
There is no sustainable way to eat the amount of meat we do, no matter how much or how little capitalism gets involved. Even assuming the absolute best (aka unrealistic) stats for grass-fed cows, we’d still have to reduce our meat consumption to 1/7 of where it currently is. Do you think that is doable just by destroying some companies? Do you think people would just accept that???
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Since around 2018 we have known that agriculture, specifically the raising of cattle, spews out more harmful emissions than the oil industry does.
😂 mind adding a source for that?
Any study that also includes indirect greenhouse gas emissions such as methane, and not just CO2.
There are NO emissions from cattle at all! Cattle eat grass, then fart, then “emissions” precipitate and new grass grows up. It’s a closed loop. And since it’s a closed loop, there are zero emissions. Emissions only happen when you dig up oil, burn it and it and your smoke doesn’t get converted back to oil.
Thanks for giving me the dumbest shit I’ve heard today.
Lolwut?
It doesn’t.
The Guardian is very much a neoliberal newspaper (some people confuse it with being Leftwing because, like most neolibs, they’re also liberal on moral subjects) so it is usually against regulatory solutions and heavilly favours using Nudge Theory to influence the masses.
So yeah, you’ll see a lot of articles about how people should become Vegetarian because of the emissions from livestock farming and very few demanding, for example, regulation of aircraft emissions (though there is a single Opinion writter there which does not suffer from profitability-prioritizing-thinking when it comes to ecological subjects).
lol but not on gas? Plastic?
Waste of money and time.
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Not really. The meat industry makes INSANE amounts of GHG emissions. Whataboutism surely won’t solve climate change.
How so? Cow farts? The grass is going to emit the same gasses whether it decomposes in a cow stomach or in the dirt. I guess the solution to carbon emissions is to pave the earth! No more organics polluting everything.
Most cows eat soy which is produced on former rainforest grounds.
Additionally, we are better off eating/using what is produced on farmlands directly instead of feeding it to animals. That is much more energy efficient!
we are better off eating/using what is produced on farmlands directly
we do. what we feed to animals is mostly the parts of plants that people can’t or won’t eat.
That’s just not true lmao. 90% of soy production is for animals. Not humans.
lmao
85% of all soy is put into an oil press. the byproduct of oil production is called soycake or soy meal.
that makes up the vast majority of the soy that is fed to animals.
So… What i said? Lmao what trap card. Your source doesn’t say anything about “soy humans can’t eat”. It’s just normal ass soy pushed into soy cakes.
soy is my favorite example
you’ve activated my trap card
No cows in UK eat soy.
Also idk about you, but I can’t eat grass
cattle hardly eat any soy at all
Not necessarily cow farts, but manure, fertilizer, and landscaping.
Methane comes primarily from livestock digestion (known as enteric fermentation) and the way livestock manure is managed. It contributes the most to agricultural emissions of greenhouse gases.
The second largest contributor is nitrous oxide, which results mostly from agricultural fertilizer application to soils and from manure management.
Carbon dioxide emissions come from increased decomposition of plant matter in soils and from converting lands to agricultural uses. Those emissions are partially offset by the increased plant matter stored in cropland soils.
You’re not wrong about the same gasses being created by decomposing grass and digested grass, but like most things, it’s a multifaceted issue.
As they say, you can’t get snakes from chicken eggs.
Good answer
Probably one of the best rebuttals I’ve ever read.
Truth be told the nugget about the same gasses being released from digestion and decomposition was news to me, so thank you for that. My knee-jerk reaction was to refute it but I realized that I truly didn’t know for sure. So I checked, lo and behold, I was wrong, and now I’ve learned something today.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
you can’t get snakes from chicken eggs.
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Calling something whataboutism won’t either. That’s just lazy and dismissive.
The CONSUMER is not going to make a difference. The change needs to happen on an industry scale.
Cattle don’t produce any emissions.
Yeah it’s going to stop people from eating what ever shit that’s available for the cheapest price to continue living. I’m pretty sure this is just another bullshit study to talk about how people should eat healthy while they don’t have budget or means to…
Edit: It seems many of you missed the meaning of what I’m talking about! Poor people who eat fast food, chicken or whatever processed meat products available for cheap not going to give a fuck about what their meat is labeled. Meat just doesn’t mean the steak people buy from the market! If this is so hard for you imbeciles to understand without getting triggered because someone said something you don’t understand than there is no need for further discussion. Processed meat consumption (including all kinds of meat beef, lamb, pork, chicken even fish) is the cheapest protein source for poor people. This study is disregarding how poor people do their food shopping. Until so called I can’t believe it’s meat type of vegetarian alternatives come to the point of real meat poor people going to continue to eat meat. And all you butt hurt so called activist can’t even see the difference because you have your head up so high up your high horses to realize what the fuck is normal people going through. Now kindly please go fuck yourselves and don’t comment any more unless you have an actual and feasible solution.
Sure there’s people that just buy what’s cheaper. But there’s also people who consciously make the choice of eating meat having the possibility of not doing so. It makes sense to target that part of the population.
Now, if subsidies to the meat and dairy industry was redericted to plant-based farming, then the only reason left to consume animals would be people’s choice of personal pleasure over ethical and environmental factors
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Meat is cheap now huh?
is that what you managed to understand what I’m saying here? If so please go away and waste oxygen somewhere else.
have you seen the prices of beans and rice?? i save a lotta money by not eating meat. even with the outrageous subsidies poured into meat it can still hardly compare.
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It’s weird hearing my dad and sister complain about how expensive meat is. Today i shopped pretty cheap, although i didn’t have to buy meat.
And i just sit there and think: oh man if only there was any alternative.meat simply has better protein options
what kinda high protein low fat and carb options are there for veggie folk?
id like to substitute chicken breast occasionally. i looked into tofu but its super fatty for pretty mid protein. beans high carb mid protein. lowfat plain greek yogurt and cottage cheese are NICE protein but taste like literal dogshit though its so close to being worth trying to stomach.
im on the search for more macro friendly foods that don’t taste like sour liquid chalk
Meat is cheap because of govt subsidies. And lab grown meat will soon be able to undercut slaughtered meat in price without those subsidies, so the whole “let poor people eat what they can afford” argument will switch sides in the coming years without new protectionist governmental policies.
When. Fullofshit.
Meat is not “cheap” it’s god dam expensive.
No one said meat is “cheap.” The word was used as a relative comparison, meaning slaughtered meat is cheaper than lab-grown alternatives.
Keep telling yourself that.
Meat is cheap
Wow you are dense
Meat is cheap
Are you really too ADD to even finish my first sentence?
If not, you are simply cherry picking the quote and leaving out “because of govt subsidies” because it doesn’t fit your narrative. The relative comparison is that meat would be more “god dam expensive” without govt subsidies. It is also much more expensive than lab grown meat, which was my point, in part because lab grown meat is not subsidized.
I hate this idea. My appetite can be ruined by stuff like this, and that would suck to throw away food since I can’t eat it
You probably wouldn’t buy it, which is the point.
I will not eat ze bugs, I will not live in ze pod. I hate the Antichrist.
A hundred and twenty years from now: “officials announce plans to label beetle burgers for their high calorie counts in hopes that consumers begin to gravitate toward the more abundant and cheaper mosquito burgers”
