Who wins this battle of plants vs meat?

There are a lot of reasons people choose to eat plants instead of meat, the environmental impact of plants vs meat is a common reason. But big AG is targeting that consumer with meat and dairy substitutes rather than targeting climate change. Food manufacturers are winning the battle when they can put a big V on the package of highly processed, chemically laden, climate impacting products.

As much as I am in favor of a plant based diet, I am not in favor of the plant based “meats”. Furthermore, plants do not necessarily win the environmental impact battle as food processors would love for you to believe. The latest and greatest “tastes just like meat” faux burgers perplexes me. Choosing to eat plants for whatever reason is one thing, but choosing plants as a primary food source is also historically rooted in a choice for whole real foods, not just plants over meat. These new “meats” are ultra processed and heavily laden with salt, chemicals, fillers and additives. Yes, there are many products at our neighborhood grocer that are highly processed with similar additives. My personal experience with vegetarians and vegans seems to highlight the difference in choice. A vegetarian, or the latest “flexitarian”, often chooses plants over meat primarily for health reasons as well as environmental impact. Vegans tend to make their choice in support of animal life as well as environmental impact. To them, perhaps, processed food does not seem troublesome.

Strictly considering meat in the human diet, it is absolutely true we do not need to consume meat to remain healthy. As a matter of fact way too many people are eating entirely too much meat to be considered healthy. And there are of course excellent sources of plant protein to replace meat. However there is an array of micro-nutrients available in meats that are, in fact, not as easy to replace other than with supplements (this is yet another enormous subject not easily addressed in this context). And the best source of replacement protein, beans, is incomplete without methane gas producing rice. Nutrient dense meat, dairy and eggs are not easy to replace. But I surely prefer not to replace them with highly processed and refined foods, eating limited amounts of meat is healthier. And, as it turns out, not necessarily worse for the environment. The “new” meat substitutes may be safe, but they are not a healthy food. You may find them as tasty as any highly processed food that is full of salt, fats, sugar, flavor enhancers etc. if taste is what matters most to you.

The argument we hear regarding choosing the new plant based burgers, for example, there is a tremendous environmental cost to consuming beef. But we need to consider the total input to food production, whatever food it is. Food processing and miles logged to transport ingredients and food is a huge factor. For example jackfruit is commonly used as a “meat substitute”. Does it make sense to fly it all the way from Thailand, truck it to a distributor, then to the grocer rather than eat the meat from a local farm? Probably not. We cannot become ignorant to the impact in the name of “saving the environment”.

Healthy Diet Pros and Cons:

PLANTS:

• Susceptible to E. coli or salmonella contamination

• Requires fertilizer and pesticides unless sustainably and organically farmed

• Difficult to get enough protein, B12, iron

• Low saturated fats and no cholesterol

• Reduces risk of diabetes and heart disease

• Humane

MEATS (unprocessed):

• Full of antibiotics

• Susceptible to E. coli or salmonella contamination

• Grass fed livestock is climate positive

• High in iron, protein and B12

• High in saturated fats

MEAT SUBSTITUTES:

• Low quality fat substitutes, chemicals, antibiotics

• Lacking in essential vitamins and minerals

• High in saturated fats

• Contain plant proteins and some fiber

• Requires fertilizer and pesticides unless sustainably and organically farmed (unlikely in Big Ag food)

• Binding agents are typically unstable lipids, linoleic acid

• Humane

I, personally, have concluded that strictly eating plants is not the most effective way to improving our environment and stopping climate change. Our choices absolutely must be inclusive of total environmental impact. Buy local to keep “food miles” to a minimum! Eat locally grown and produced foods! Support sustainable farming! So much that we can do as consumers that will influence how our climate is impacted. Don’t let marketing ploys capitalize on climate change fears.