eva vegetarianism and sustainability
DESCRIPTION
In this presentation EVA presents facts and figures about vegetarianism without drawing conclusions. Just check out the slide show and make your own!TRANSCRIPT
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
(++32) (+0) 494 64 69 38
EVA vzw
St.-Pietersnieuwstraat 130
9000 Gent
Belgium