Thread by @apeckerpeck

Would reducing red meat consumption in Canada do more hard than good? A thread: (1/13)

@epicurious, @FoodSystems, @EATforum – you’ve heard it multiple places: ‘We must reduce meat consumption for climate change, the environment, to reduce our dietary carbon footprints.’ However, what could the implications of this be for #Canada? (2/13)

In a recent @CBCNews article, a researcher suggested that reducing beef consumption by 25% would result in a reduction of livestock related emissions of 10%. Sounds good, but… (3/13)

…in Canada, thanks to @CRSB_beef, we have a full Life Cycle Analysis, which found that the #Cdnbeef industry contributes 2.4% of our national emissions. So, reducing livestock emissions by 10% would result in a national emissions reduction of 0.2%. (4/13)

While small, any reduction in emissions is a step forward, right? However, measuring the pros and cons is more complex than that. Emissions are just one way one to measure sustainability, just one way of looking at the carbon footprint of our diet . (5/13)

There are many benefits we receive from having cattle on the land, which is supported by conservation partners like @ducanada, @NCC_CNC, @BirdsCanada to name a few. So let’s also imagine a 25% reduction in these environmental benefits. (6/13)

35 million acres of native temperate grasslands are cared for by the families that raise beef cattle. This is one of the most #endangered ecosystems in the entire world with less than 26% remaining intact. Grasslands are the coral reefs of Canada. (7/13)

A 25% reduction of this land would be 8,750,000 million acres potentially lost to development. That land would be equal to 56x the size of Toronto or 300x the size of Vancouver. (8/13)

Of ALL ag land in Canada, pastures and grasslands where beef cattle are raised provide the majority of wildlife habitat– close to 70%. Reducing the beef herd by 25% would result in 17.5% less wildlife habitat across this country, impacting some of the most at-risk species. (9/13)

Finally, those lands where beef cattle are raised currently store 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon in the soil. According to Bork (2013) cultivation of grasslands can result in 30 – 50% of the carbon being lost. That could mean up to 187.5 million tonnes of carbon released (10/13)

Calculating from #Canada's national emissions in 2019 (730 million tonnes), that soil carbon loss would represent more than ONE THIRD of our national emissions (38%). (11/13)

Regardless of whether you eat #beef or not, cattle in Canada provide #environmental benefits in the form of preserving grasslands, wildlife habitat and sequestering carbon. (12/13)

Reducing your beef consumption to benefit the environment might actually hurt more than it helps. Sometimes what you thought was the problem, is really part of the solution. Hope to see you tonight at the #GuardiansoftheGrasslands premiere. (13/13).

You can register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regist…