Sunday, February 9, 2025
HomeTechnologyThis Food Paradox: Why Your Steak Costs More Than You Think

This Food Paradox: Why Your Steak Costs More Than You Think

We’ve all heard that a diet high in meat isn’t the best. Not for our health and not for our planet’s climate. But how expensive is it to put a steak on your plate? These researchers finally have the answer.

For many years, doctors have discovered links between the (excessive) consumption of meat, especially processed meat, and the appearance of certain diseases. Of CancerCancersometimes. The MeteorologistsMeteorologistsThey are concerned about the impact of livestock farming on anthropogenic global warming. In France, for example, agriculture represents 18.7 percent. BroadcastingBroadcasting of greenhouse gases. Livestock breeding is responsible for 60% (almost two-thirds!) of these. Two good reasons can motivate us to reduce our meat consumption.

do you know

Livestock farming is not only a burden on the climate. It is also a source of all kinds of services. It allows the value of biomass and non-edible products by humans, limits the use of mineral and synthetic fertilizers, permanent grasslands (valuable carbon sinks) and even landscape maintenance and associated Biodiversity. So many levers to activate to envision more responsible agriculture.

To allow us to make even more informed choices, Norwegian, Austrian and Swiss researchers decided to quantify it.EnergyEnergy It is necessary to produce the food we eat. They present their findings in the journal, some of which are quite surprising. PNAS Nexus.

Not surprisingly, eating meat is expensive depending on the season.

The first statistic to remember from this study is that between 2015 and 2019, global production of animal-based food – not just meat, but also cheese or eggs – accounted for nearly 60 percent of energy consumption in the agricultural sector. were responsible for Energy that comes primarily from fossil fuels.

But researchers, particularly suspicious of ineffective breeding, provide only 18 percent. CaloriesCalories Used around the world, wanted to go even further. “We produce edible products first, then we feed them to animals so they get a very small fraction of the calories they eat.”In a press release published on , the study’s lead author Edgar Hertwich noted. Norwegian Science Tech News. So his team calculated what he said. Return on Energy Investment. One way, according to scientists, to really get a sense of the world’s breeding efficiency. Because, if the result is less than 1, it simply means that the food takes more energy to produce than it provides us in calories.

Can stopping meat production save the planet?

To conduct a more precise analysis, the researchers worked on 10 food product groups that contained a total of 123 different products. He divided the world into 20 regions. Finally, they studied data from two periods, one from 1995 to 1999 and the other from 2015 to 2019. And it paid off. Trends emerge.

Energy efficiency in livestock farming leaves something to be desired.

First, the good news, the energy efficiency of the global food system improved between 1995 and 2019. But not everything is perfect. Because even in 2019, global energy’s return on investment was only 0.91. Understand this. “For every edible calorie supplied to society, 10% more energy was required to produce it”.

And again, it’s the less industrialized countries that are pushing the figures up. South or Southeast Asia. East Africa too. Their return on energy investment is greater than 1. And West Africa does even better with a score of 2.70!

High-income countries have also made progress. “A nice surpriseCommented Norwegian University of Science and Technology researcher Kijoan Rasool. However, this may be due to a shift to a higher-calorie diet or an increased reliance on imports from areas where conditions are better for producing food in a more energy-efficient manner. Further work will be required to draw conclusions on this point.

RELATED ARTICLES

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Most Popular

Recent Comments