Cigarette-style climate warnings on food could cut meat consumption, study suggests

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Cigarette-style climate warnings on food could cut meat consumption, study suggests
theguardian.com

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.

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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 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).

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???

Ban lobbying and see how fast the whole justification falls apart. There's a reason why west is so car dependent and there's no public transport in sight.

Since around 2018 we have known that agriculture, specifically the raising of cattle, spews out more harmful emissions than the oil industry does.

πŸ˜‚ mind adding a source for that?

Any study that also includes indirect greenhouse gas emissions such as methane, and not just CO2.

Methane is greehhouse gas which is included in the original link. But even if you ignore that section, there's literally methane only section.

The same methane that can be greatly cut down just by changing the diet of the cows? That methane?

Except they don't. They keep pumping out agricultural funded studies that say "a crumb of seaweed solves climate change!" but we're always soonβ„’.

Lol they never make the janitor sign an NDA. It works, figuring out how to lock down the patent is what's keeping it from market.

Greed, just greed.

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.

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