Sina science and technology news on May 10, Beijing time, according to foreign media reports, a study on the environmental impact of "green food" found that eating artificial meat or insects can help greatly reduce carbon emissions and water consumption, and liberate more agricultural land** Compared with the current European diet, this kind of food can reduce the pressure on the earth by 80%. However, whether consumers are willing to change their eating habits is still unknown.
Nowadays, a series of non-traditional foods are under development, hoping to reduce the burden on the earth by reducing water and land while providing human beings with nutrients rich in protein and other nutrients.
Scientists studied the nutritional composition of some of these products and examined their pressure on the environment in three aspects: water, land and potential carbon emissions. They say replacing meat, dairy products and other animal foods with alternatives can reduce these effects by more than 80%, while providing more comprehensive basic nutrients than vegetarians.
But they found that just reducing the consumption of meat and increasing the consumption of vegetables could have a similar effect on the earth. Global warming, land use and water consumption will be significantly reduced if animal derived foods can be significantly reduced and replaced with more new foods and plant proteins. Vegetarianism can have a similar effect. If the amount of food from animals is reduced by 75%, the impact on the environment can also be reduced by about 75%.
The study was published in the journal Nature food. All kinds of new foods studied will gradually become part of our daily diet in the future. Many of them rely on high-tech means to "cultivate" animal and plant cells in bioreactors. Some of these foods are still at the conceptual stage, such as crushed flies and crickets, proteins grown in chicken cells in the laboratory, algae called "giant algae", protein powder made of mushrooms or microorganisms, edible algae, and milk, meat and berries cultivated through cells.
Although these findings "have broad prospects, consumers' resistance to changing eating habits may delay or even prevent such changes." Many studies have shown that the establishment of plant-based eating habits is of great benefit to their own health and the earth's environment. A recent report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on climate change also recommends that people develop a more balanced diet, eat more grains and vegetables, and eat an appropriate amount of meat and dairy products produced in a sustainable way. (leaves)