Meat, milk alternatives could slash food system emissions a third: study

https://phys.org/news/2023-09-meat-alternatives-slash-food-emissions.html

by PaulHoule • 3 years ago

35 23 3 years ago

We've got impossible burgers which are honestly better than most real burgers, but it's there a viable alternative for my morning/mid morning/lunchtime/early afternoon/late afternoon/evening/nightcap (decaf) latte?

edit: Oh wait I forgot about cheese, yeah life without milk is udderly untenable.

bexsella• 3 years ago

I've been looking for a decent replacement for milk for a long time, I've tried them all. Oat Milk is what I've finally settled on. Specifically the brand Oatly (which I believe is broadly available) for me has solved the overly oaty taste with their Barista Edition milk. I will say that it is still notably worse than cows milk, but to a degree I can personally live with. But I'd recommend maybe ordering an oat milk latte one day when you're feeling particularly adventurous and just seeing if the downgrade in taste is tenable for you.

Cheese is a whole other kettle of fish, they're all awful.

thatswrong0• 3 years ago

Boursin's dairy-free cheese spread is a great alternative to cream cheese IMO (although you're kind of stuck with garlic & herbs flavor). Haven't quite found good alternatives to melty cheeses like cheddar though.

DennisP• 3 years ago

Perfect Day has engineered yeast to make milk proteins. They're selling ice cream made of actual milk, produced from yeast.

myshpa3• 3 years ago

(decaf) latte

I'm running on regular coffee, no milk.

Oh wait I forgot about cheese

Try https://www.vegancheese.co/discover - 1800+ plant based cheeses, perhaps one or two would satisfy your taste buds? :)

life without milk is udderly untenable

I've missed yoghurt the most. Fortunately coconut milk based yoghurts are quite palatable.

Sorry, I have to. Did you know that dairy is scary? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcN7SGGoCNI

why_at• 3 years ago

Have you had any success using that site (vegancheese.co)?

I want to try them but a lot are only available in very specific regions. I found one that was supposedly available at a farmers' market near me (bay area) but when I went there I couldn't find it.

Do any of them deliver?

sentimentscan• 3 years ago

I much more prefer the tempeh to meat. (I have cut back only ti social occasions as I am a little bit addicted to taste/climate) I would to have more alternatives that are not trying to mimic meat/cheese, but traditional things or creative ones like tempeh/tofu/kimchi/all fermented.

Similarly instead of vegan burger/falafel there are amazing traditional cuisine like Shojin Ryori (vegan japanease cuisine)

spondylosaurus• 3 years ago

Tofu in particular is an amazing, versatile ingredient with so many varieties and ways to prepare it (in western countries we barely scratch the surface)—if all you do with tofu is try to approximate meat, you're wasting its full potential!

ktosobcy• 3 years ago

Sadly any diary alternatives are at best "meh"...

gs17• 3 years ago

NotMilk is pretty good IMO (maybe not if you usually drink milk by the glass), unfortunately they had to shift to only making smaller shelf-stable containers instead of larger refrigerated ones.

Cheese alternatives are lacking though. You can get something okay on a burger, but nothing with any protein to it.

invalidname• 3 years ago

It's a matter of habit. Due to lactose sensitivity I moved to soy and hated it. Got used to a specific brand of rice almond milk and it's the best. Now if some place has only cow milk it tastes funny and not in a good way...

Klonoar2• 3 years ago

I think that’s a matter of preference.

zeristor• 3 years ago

How much are the alternatives ultra processed foods?

ToDougie• 3 years ago

I prefer to eat meat. Staying away from common grains more and more over the past five years has really improved my overall health. My inflammation is reduced and all of my blood tests that I run twice+ a year are great. Lab grown meat seems like it might work some day, but the real thing seems to beat out any kind of vegan/vegetarian option for my own personal health outcomes.

zolbrek• 3 years ago

Meat is great. Factory farming not so. I'd like to see governments subsidize farms where the livestock isn't maltreated and pumped full of who knows what.

mistrial9• 3 years ago

red meat in middle age is associated with Male Erectile Dysfunction, accelerated tumor growth, and colon cancers, particularly processed meat like hot dogs. But that is a personal topic. On the greater scale, the ability of people to put long-term survival ahead of immediate gratification is part of the remarkable story of humanity.

Both of these are reasons to reconsider absolutism on this topic, no?

PaulHoule• 3 years ago

The case against processed red meat seems more certain, for unprocessed meat it seems less certain.

From my own dealings with animals I'm more concerned about the animal welfare issues with chicken than any other meat, that is, I'm increasingly convinced from my own dealings with birds and other animals that birds are just as smart and as able to suffer as mammals. Yes, chicken have a better feed conversion ratio than other animals but commercial chickens are raised exclusively on grain whereas at least other animals are partially raised on forage which has can have less environmental impact (leave soil intact) and can possibly have waste production which is scaled by the ability to put it back on fields (I can witness hay fields at an understocked horse farm grow in productivity year after year even though it is one of very few understocked animal operations that I've ever seen) whereas commercial chicken is the worse kind of CAFO. See "domestic animals" in

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture

myshpa3• 3 years ago

Replacing half of the pork, chicken, beef and milk products we consume with plant-based alternatives could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and related land use by nearly a third, and virtually halt forest loss, according to research published on Tuesday.

Switching completely to plant-based diets could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 16.5% [0], free up land equivalent to both Americas for reforestation [1], sequester in those forests enough carbon to offset all carbon produced since the industrial revolution [13], to restore biodiversity [2], and repair the water cycle [3], preventing droughts. The current trend of an American-style diet would require five Earths to sustain the global population [4].

As developing nations become more affluent, transitioning to plant-based diets is crucial for sustainable food production.[5]

Current (animal) agriculture is a leading driver of biodiversity loss [6], deforestation [7], water pollution [8], oceanic dead zones [9], and soil erosion [10]. It is the primary factor pushing us into ecological overshoot [11] and threatens our survival.[12]

[0] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352100490_Emissions...

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2013/10/World-Map-by-Land...

[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26231772/

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biotic_pump

[4] https://css.umich.edu/publications/factsheets/sustainability...

[5] https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/917471

[6] https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/our-glob...

[7] https://ourworldindata.org/drivers-of-deforestation

[8] https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food

[9] https://blogs.ubc.ca/makingwaves/2017/02/07/cows-pigs-and-po...

[10] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/only-60-years-of-...

[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_overshoot

[12] https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2...

[13] https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal...

amanaplanacanal• 3 years ago

As far as I can see all the people working on plant based alternatives are trying to replicate the taste of animal products. I’m much more interested in replicating the nutritional profile of animal products, and nothing I’ve seen even comes close.

eternityforest• 3 years ago

I'm interested in whatever nutritional profile produces the lowest long term disease risk.

It doesn't seem like they fully know what that is, or if it's the same for everyone.

They keep putting out studies saying plants are healthy, and I don't eat any meat, but occasionally you see people say their health improved on a carnivore diet, and nobody seems to know if it's a real effect or what is causing it, or what genetic factors might influence it.

Everyone just talks a lot about bioavailable nutrients, but I would imagine that unless you're a bodybuilder, finding the optimal amount of each nutrient would be more interested than just trying to maximize everything, which is what some people seem to be doing.

I'm kind of amazed that it's still not really fully clear what the healthiest way to eat is.

Seems like most scientists are pretty well in favor of Mediterranean though, right?

Klonoar2• 3 years ago

If people would get over the soy myth, it would be much easier.

Ekaros• 3 years ago

I wonder what else would be effective. Like moving everyone to live in shared dorms let's say 100 people in single room. Or small cubicle. Surely such arrangement with rationed water for washing would save massively compared to current sub-urban lifestyle. And there is all of those unused office spaces that could be used for this.

Meat, milk alternatives could slash food system emissions a third: study

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