Less meat, less heat

sustainability and our steak

Content

1. The problem: high meat consumption- environmental crisis- food crisis- health crisis

2. Our solution- challenges- content- approach

EVA’s aim is to maximally replace animal food by plant based food, thus helping to create a more people, animal and environmentally friendly society

We inform, organize, lobby and campaign

Our staff of 6 operates from our office in Ghent

We were founded in 2000

1. The problem

Animal crisis

Environmental crisis

Health crisis

Food crisis

It’s about what goes in, and what comes out

Food crisis

Environmental crisis

Health crisis

« The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.

The findings of this report suggest that it should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution and loss of biodiversity.»

Livestock’s Long Shadow, FAO 2006

1. Environmental crisis

19 billion animals at any momentor 55 billion per year (FAOSTAT)

Did you think only humans have an ecological footprint?

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Animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions:

methane (CH4)

nitrous oxide (N2O)

carbondioxide (CO2)

(Livestock’s Long Shadow)

Environmental crisis: climate

Focus on methane?

GWP values and lifetimes from

2007 IPCC AR4 [3]Lifetime (years)

GWP time horizon

20 years 100 years 500 years

Methane 12         72         25         7.6       (7)

Nitrous oxide 114       289       298       153       (156)

GWP (global warming potential) of methane increases when a time horizonof 20 years is used instead of one of 100.

Mitigation?

« Available technologies for reduction of emissions from livestock production, applied universally at realistic costs, would reduce non-carbon dioxide emissions by less than 20%. »

(McMichael et al, 2007)

Pasture land for cattle

Crops for cattle feed

An area the size of Belgium, every year*

global warmingloss of biodiversity

(*own calculations, based on Livestock’s Long Shadow data)

Environmental crisis: deforestation

1 kg pork = 16 kg of manure

Environmental crisis: manure

2. Food crisis

Planet Earth2010

Out of almost 7.000.000.000 people on this planet

1.000.000.000 suffer from hunger, of which 200.000.000 are children

25.000 people die of hunger or malnutrition every day

Now how many is that, really?

Feeding 55 billion animals per year to feed 7 billion people

Using large amounts of land

76% of all agricultural land

or 29% of Earth’s global land mass

44% of global grain production

Using huge amounts of food and water…

15.000 liters of water for one kg of beef

(enough to shower for a year!)

Inefficient use of land

Inefficient use of food

7 to 10 kg grain for 1 kg of beef4 to 5.5 kg grain for 1 kg of pork2 to 3 kg grain for 1 kg of chicken

3. Health crisis: meanwhile, in the west…

4. Animal crisis

"The greatness of a nation and it's moral progress can be judged by the way it's animals are treated.” 

Gandhi

Past, present and future

Meat consumption and income

« The current global average meat consumption is 100 g per person per day, with about a ten-fold variation between high-consuming and low-consuming populations. 90 g per day is proposed as a working global target, shared more evenly, with not more than 50 g per day coming from red meat from ruminants.»

(McMichael et al, Food, livestock production, energy, climate change, and health, The Lancet, Oct 2007.)

“The only environmentally responsible way to accommodate the world’s increasing demand for meat is to produce increased amounts of feed crops without using more land. The only way to accomplish that is to substantially increase yields.”

(http://farmecon.com/Documents/Projections%20of%20Global%20Meat%20Production%20Through%202050.pdf)

“Hence, some affected countries now face the double burden of under-nutrition due to nutritional deficits in parts of their populations and an increase in obesity-related chronic diseases due to increased availability of foods of animal origin, high in saturated fat, and energy-dense processed foods rich in fats and sugar. (…)

Economic development and associated urbanism could lead to diets that are less protective against chronic diseases than are traditional diets. »

McMichael et al.

Heavy stress on the meat production system because of:- Scarce land- scarce water- scarce fertilizer - climate change- rising consumer awareness- health costs

The future

70% increase in food production by 2050?

So far for the bad news…

If too much meat is a big part of the problem, a big part of the solution may lie in eating differently.

2. Our solution

ChallengesLess meat = a hard, negative message

Challenges

Government is reluctant to interfere (private matter + economic interests)

Challenges

Animal products are omnipresent in our lives; alternatives aren’t, yet

Challenges

Large lack of knowledge concerning the problem, both in theory and practice

Challenges

‘Less meat’ is easily interpreted as ‘no meat’

EVA: translating an important but difficult message to something fun and doable

Making Meat Moderation Mainstream &

Marketable

Mmmmm!

‘Go veggie’ meat reduction

A little bit less every day?A vegetarian day a year, a week?Meatless: less meat in meat?‘Vegetarian before six’?A veggie dayThursday Veggie Day

Core messsage: Thursday = veggie day

Ghent: official proclamation, May 2009

140.000 veggie street maps

1.000 guides for chefs & staff

35 city schools joining

Educational material

Courses for citizens and professionals

Website, newsletterse

Campaign material: posters, flyers, t-shirts, stickers, placemats, frocks…

And also…

Results (nationally)

Large participation in city schools (95%)2 city restaurants skip meat on ThursdayRedelijke bekendheid van de campagne op twee jaar tijd (met weinig middelen)Imitation of the concept in other Belgian cities (Hasselt, Mechelen), interest from others (Antwerp, Aalst, Vilvoorde…)Financial support by the city of Ghent

Results (internationally)

Press from Time Magazine to TokyoGovernments interested (Nottingham, Genua, Colombia…)Imitation in Bremen (Germany) and Sao Paulo (Brazil)Visiting researches from different countriesInviations to speak in Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Washington.…Support from IPCC chairman Rajendra PachauriCalls for veggie days at the Europees ParlementInterest of NGO’s in many countries (France, Sweden, Taiwan, US, UK…)

• concrete• positive• doable• challenging• fun• credible• empowering• sticky

Shaping the message

Concrete

Compare e.g. with Swedish government:

“try to replace one or two meals a week by vegetarian dishes or eat smaller portions of meat”.

Concrete (2)

Positive

Using the carrot rather than the stick

Compare with “Meatfree Monday”

Doable

Daily portion of meat = a recent phenomenon

Research by Federal Council Sustainable Development (FRDO, 2009)What about at most 2 meat dishes (as an alternative for vegetarian dishes) in public cafetarias (schools, businesses) by 2020?

Credible

A must for sustainability and health

Empowering

If too much meat is a big part of the problem, a big part of the solution lies in the way we eat

Sticky

SimpleUnexpectedConcreteCredible EmotionalStory

Marketing

This message is marketable to

- Consumers- Business (production, distribution,

catering)- Government

Contact info

Tobias Leenaert

tobias@vegetarian.be

(++32) (+0) 494 64 69 38

EVA vzw

St.-Pietersnieuwstraat 130

9000 Gent

Belgium