Shifting Diets: From Meat-Centric to Plant-Based Solutions

Diet shifts towards plant-based foods are essential for improving health, climate, and food security.

### Shifting Diets: The Urgent Need for Plant-Based Eating
* 👵 Grandma Tots, a quintessential 1950s housewife, believed meat was **essential**, cooking it at every meal, even in unexpected dishes like **cottage cheese**.
* 🥩 She was influenced by government promotions that touted meat as **vital for national strength and health**, a mindset stemming from her upbringing during **World War II**.
* 📈 The dietary shift from rare meat consumption to daily meat-centric meals was not merely a preference but a result of **extensive government and corporate influences**.
* 🌱 To combat climate change and ensure food security for 10 billion people by 2050, we must pivot from **industrial meat consumption** to a **plant-based diet**.
* ❤ My family's transition to a plant-rich diet after my father's heart attack highlighted the health benefits of **reducing meat intake**, as overconsumption is linked to **preventable diseases**.
* 🌍 Meat production accounts for approximately **20% of global emissions**, and nearly half of farmland is misused for **animal feed instead of human food**.
* 🍔 Successful examples like Germany's Burger King promoting plant-based options demonstrate that when provided with **affordable choices**, consumers will opt for **healthier alternatives**.
* 🌿 We must advocate for companies and governments to incentivize plant-based diets, making them the **default choice in schools and restaurants**, ultimately creating a **healthier, more sustainable world**.

when I was a kid, we'd go visit my grandparents, and my grandma Tots was a classic 1950s American housewife. She thought she was a terrible cook. She cooked everything in the microwave, even meat, and she had meat at every meal, even in her cottage cheese. One time, my brother brought his girlfriend to visit, and she was a vegetarian. And so, my brother reminded Grandma Tots of this, and she said, Oh, okay, what does she want for dinner then, chicken or fish? Grandma Tots could not imagine that you would have a meal that didn't revolve around meat. And I can see why. I mean, she grew up in a time where she was inundated by government promotions that meat was key to supporting your country, and company ads talked about it being essential for being strong and manly. And it was cheap too. It was subsidized by the government and partially explained as a way of bulking up malnourished men so that they could fight in World War II. But what my grandma witnessed in the

first half of her life was unprecedented. She saw the fastest and widest shift in diets that had ever occurred within just a few decades. She saw the norm go from eating meat as a rare treat to having it three times a day, to having meat named after our meals. So, we had breakfast meats, we had lunch meats, and well, beef is what's for dinner. And that didn't happen because people just suddenly realized they really liked the taste of meat. What we eat is less about what we choose and more about what's offered to us. And companies and governments today still make it really hard for us to choose anything other than meat. I mean, it's offered everywhere, it's often the only choice, and it's cheaper than other options. So much so, if you took away all government support and subsidies for meat, a pound of ground beef would cost $30. So now we eat more meat than ever before, and it's continuing to grow. And we got to this point thanks to the extensive and far-reaching efforts of

governments and companies to push our diets towards meat. What we need now is the same fundamental shift in what we eat, but in the opposite direction, back towards plants. I'm here today as a food and climate expert because diet shifts are critical for the planet. The only way that we can reach climate targets and feed 10 billion people is by reducing the production and consumption of industrial meat. We need other solutions, we need regenerative agriculture, and we need to address food loss and waste, but those alone are insufficient to reach climate goals. Diet shifts are also essential for food security and health. We need to grow more food on less land by 2050, and to do that, we need to shift from land-intensive animal protein to land-efficient vegetable protein. And that also helps with our health. Grots continued to put meat in pretty much every meal, and by the time I was about 11, that diet caught up with my dad, her son, and he had a massive heart attack. I don't remember a lot about it, but I

remember sitting in this hospital waiting for him to get out of six-way bypass surgery using this very high-tech surgery plan of 1996. My mom took me and my siblings to get dinner in the hospital while we waited, and she took us to the only restaurant that was available, a McDonald's. So, we sat there eating greasy cheeseburgers while my dad was on the floor above having open-heart surgery due to years of eating unhealthy food. We ate there because it was really all that was available. After my dad's surgery, our household went largely plant-based thanks to my mom and my dad. He's still alive, so I know firsthand how plant-rich diets can be life-saving. And now we know that overconsumption of meat is a leading cause of preventable disease, including heart disease, but also obesity and diabetes. We also know that meat is a leading cause of climate change. Meat alone can account for as much as 20% of global emissions. We also know that we're misusing nearly half of our farmland to

grow feed for animals rather than food for humans. But no one really wants to talk about this proverbial cow in the room: the fundamental need to shift our food system away from industrial meat. And maybe it's because we know people really care about what they eat, or maybe it's because we know we're not going to get there by pleading with people to eat differently, especially when most consumers have to go out of their way and pay more for alternative products. What we need is for companies and governments to offer an incentivized plant-rich diet, the same way they did for meat decades ago. I need to walk into a McDonald's and see a menu full of plant-rich options and have them be just as cheap or cheaper than the Big Mac. And we need our schools and hospitals to offer plant-based foods as the default, where you can get meat but you have to ask for it as the exception. And we need just as much money to flow into the plant-based industry as currently makes meat wildly and

artificially cheap. Whether that's making better black bean burgers or novel alternative proteins, we know that this can work because it has before, and we know it's working again in the places where we've dared to try it. Just last month, I was in Germany. I walked into a Burger King, and bam, I was bombarded with ads for their plant-based Whopper. It was all over the store, and the plant-based Whopper was the center of the menu, and it was the same price as the regular Whopper. Today, in Burger Kings in Germany, one in five of all Whoppers sold are plant-based. One in five in the country that invented the Frankfurter. Or take Leclerc. It's one of the largest supermarkets in Europe. They decided to put their plant-based meat next to the conventional meat in the meat section and make it the same price. So when you went to grab a package of ground beef, you had a healthier, sustainable plant-based option right next to it that cost the same. Within 6

months of making this change, the sale of their plant-based products went up by 30% and shows no sign of flagging. Even in New York City Public Schools, the largest school district in the country, they now have plant-based lunches for students. So, over a million children are eating plant-based lunches at least once a week. Now, scaling from here, it's not easy politically or personally, but we're not talking about never eating meat; we're talking about less meat and more plants. We're talking about overconsumption of meat. The average American right now eats six times the recommended amount of red meat—six times. If we were to just half that, it would have massive benefits for the climate, for food security, and for health. And companies and governments have been telling us for decades what to eat. They have the power to help us choose differently, and yes, there's progress to be made. We need products that are plant-based to be healthier and cheaper, but without a doubt, eating more plants is better for the planet, better for animals, and better for us. And when

companies and governments make it easier for us to choose differently. We do. People want healthy and sustainable options, but it's simply not that easy to make that choice today. The momentum is growing that McDonald's in the hospital. It got kicked out, and my dad gets to play and share hot dogs in the occasional hot dog at family barbecues. And that's the world I envision for all of us, where we're able to improve public health, we have avoided the worst of the climate crisis, and we've improved global food security. That world is possible because we've shifted diets before, and we can do it again. Thank you.

The Hidden Forces Behind Your Food Choices | Sarah Lake | TED

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Grandma Tots, a 1950s housewife, struggled to imagine meals without meat, reflecting the government's and companies' strong promotion of meat as essential for strength and support.

The unprecedented shift in diets from rare meat treats to three-meal-a-day meat consumption was driven by government subsidies and promotions.

Today, meat is still the dominant and cheapest option, making it difficult for people to choose alternatives, leading to an ever-growing meat consumption.

The Need for a Shift Towards Plant-Based Diets

A fundamental shift in diets is necessary to reduce the production and consumption of industrial meat, which is critical for reaching climate targets and feeding 10 billion people.

Transitioning from land-intensive animal protein to land-efficient vegetable protein is essential for food security, health, and sustainable food production by 2050.

The overconsumption of meat is a leading cause of preventable diseases and climate change, accounting for up to 20% of global emissions and misusing nearly half of our farmland.

Shifting the Food System: The Need for Plant-Rich Diets

There is a crucial need to move away from industrial meat production and offer incentivized plant-rich diets.

Companies and governments should provide affordable plant-based options, making them the default in schools and hospitals.

Successful examples, like Burger King's plant-based Whopper and Leclerc's pricing strategy, demonstrate that this shift can work and is already making an impact.

The sale of plant-based products has increased by 30%, with New York City Public Schools now offering plant-based lunches to over a million children.

The average American consumes six times the recommended amount of red meat, and halving that could have significant benefits for the climate, food security, and health.

Companies and governments have the power to influence our food choices, and increasing the availability of healthier and cheaper plant-based products is crucial for making a positive impact.

The Shift Towards Healthy and Sustainable Choices

Companies and governments are making it easier for people to choose healthy and sustainable options, but it's still a challenge.

The momentum for change is growing, with examples like McDonald's being kicked out of hospitals.

The speaker envisions a world with improved public health, climate crisis avoidance, and better global food security through a shift in diets.