Jessica Corbett:

Amid fresh warnings from United Nations researchers that there is a closing window to enact the “rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented” societal changes needed to prevent a climate catastrophe, a new study of the global food system underscores the environmental necessity of a massive reduction in meat consumption worldwide.

Considering projections that the world’s population could grow to 10 billion by 2050, Options for Keeping the Food System Within Environmental Limits, published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature, found that mitigating the climate crisis requires overhauling the current system by shifting toward more plant-based diets, improving technologies and management, and slashing food waste by at least half.

“Feeding a world population of 10 billion is possible, but only if we change the way we eat and the way we produce food,” study co-author Johan Rockström of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany told the Guardian. “Greening the food sector or eating up our planet: this is what is on the menu today.”

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