-
1
[14] We need other solutions. We need regenerative agriculture. And we need to address food loss and waste. But those alone are insufficient to reach climate goals. And diet shifts are also essential for food security and health.
-
2
[15] We need to grow more food on less land by 2050, and to do that, we need to shift from land-intensive animal protein to land-efficient vegetable protein. And that also helps with our health.
-
3
[16] Grandma Toots continued to put meat in pretty much every meal, and by the time I was about 11, that diet caught up with my dad, her son, and he had a massive heart attack.
-
4
[17] I don't remember a lot about it, but I remember sitting in this hospital waiting for him to get out of six-way bypass surgery, using this very high-tech surgery plan of 1996.
-
5
[18] And my mom took me and my siblings to get dinner in the hospital while we waited. And she took us to the only restaurant that was available: a McDonald's.
-
6
[19] So we sat there eating greasy cheeseburgers while my dad was on the floor above, having open-heart surgery due to years of eating unhealthy food.
-
7
[20] And we ate there because it was really all that was available. After my dad's surgery, our household went largely plant-based thanks to my mom. And my dad, he's still alive.
-
8
[21] So I know firsthand how plant-rich diets can be life-saving. And now we know that overconsumption of meat is a leading cause of preventable disease, including heart disease, but also obesity and diabetes.
-
9
[22] We also know that meat is a leading cause of climate change. Meat alone can account for as much as 20 percent of global emissions.
-
10
[23] We also know that we're misusing nearly half of our farmland to grow feed for animals, rather than food for humans.
-
11
[24] But no one really wants to talk about this proverbial cow in the room: the fundamental need to shift our food system away from industrial meat.
-
12
[25] And maybe it's because we know people really care about what they eat. Or maybe it's because we know we're not going to get there by pleading with people to eat differently, especially when most consumers have to go out of their way and pay more for alternative products.
-
13
[26] What we need is for companies and governments to offer and incentivize plant-rich diets the same way they did for meat decades ago.
-
14
[27] I need to walk into a McDonald's and see a menu full of plant-rich options and have them be just as cheap or cheaper than the Big Mac.
-
15
[28] And we need our schools and hospitals to offer plant-based foods as the default, where you can get meat but you have to ask for it as the exception.
-
16
[29] And we need just as much money to flow into the plant-based industry as currently makes meat wildly and artificially cheap.
