Plant-based meat options tout lower impacts to the environment than their traditional meat counterparts. This is through improvement in land management via decreased deforestation, as well as less agricultural resources being used to farm unsustainable crops intended for livestock feeding. Making the switch can also directly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“There are so many omnivores in the world, [and] any dietary change they make will really move the needle on climate change,” says Jennifer Jay, professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering and an affiliated faculty member at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. “If all the omnivores in the world switched half of their beef consumption to plant-based items, we would meet 68% of the reduction in greenhouse gases required by the Paris Agreement on climate change.”
As part of its sustainability efforts, UCLA now offers Impossible plant-based meats at the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center’s Plateia and Rendezvous, a dining spot near university dorms. Larger food chains such as Costco, Safeway and Burger King are also including plant-based meat in their menus.
With demand for plant-based alternatives increasing, there are some legal and political questions coming to the surface. One such question is whether a tax on animal meat should be implemented to incentivize reduced consumption. While this could move the needle toward more environmentally friendly eating habits, this tax is a hard sell. Another concern is the nutritional quality of plant-based meats which are known to have relatively high levels of salt, saturated fat and calories.
Learn more about the rise of plant-based meat alternatives at UCLA Newsroom.
Image Source: Con Poulos
