Pollution can also be combated at the table, with one’s own food choices. If the Americans were to give up one of the three meat burgers they eat on average every week, choosing a vegetable-based one, the greenhouse gas emissions of 12 million cars circulating for a year could be eliminated. Two researchers, winners of the “Champions Environment Award 2018”, have worked to break down the basic elements of red meat into proteins, fats, water and trace elements, to create a substitute quite similar to beef produced entirely from plants, with a much lower environmental cost. We talked about it with Dr. Silvia Goggi, dietician of Humanitas San Pio X at the Babygreen clinic, who for more than two years now has been meeting the needs of families who have opted for a vegetable-based diet.

Fighting pollution at the table

Producing a vegetable-only hamburger required researchers between 75 and 99% less water, about 95% less arable land, and generated 90% less greenhouse gas emissions than a meat hamburger.

“One of the most destructive ways to make our mark on the planet,” says James Lomax, head of the UN’s Sustainable Food Systems and Agriculture Programme, “is to produce meat from intensive livestock. The data indicate that if cows were a nation they would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world and that to produce a 150-gram hamburger, more than 1,600 litres of water are needed”.

The dish with the highest environmental impact

Hamburgers and French fries, besides not being a healthy dish despite being the most consumed in the world, is also the one with the highest environmental impact. According to the FAO, the demand for meat is constantly increasing. It is therefore a question of thinking about how to produce and consume meat with less environmental impact. According to experts in the management of sustainable food systems of the United Nations, for the well-being of man and the planet, it is necessary, first and foremost, to reduce the consumption of meat from intensive farming.

The health benefits of a plant-based diet

“Renouncing a meat burger is only good for your health. The same proteins can be found in legumes, cereals, dried fruit and oilseeds, which not only have a lower environmental impact than red meat, but also a zero intake of cholesterol – said Dr. Goggi -. In a country, Italy, where as in the U.S. the first cause of death is ischemic heart disease can only do well to review their priorities regarding what protein sources to put in their plate”.