The Impact of the Meat Industry on Climate Change
At Thistle, we believe that leading a healthy lifestyle isn’t just about what we eat, but also about how we eat. We’re not talking about table manners here – we are talking about the environmental impact of our food choices on the planet.
What’s Meat Got To Do With It?
Our commitment to encouraging a plant-forward diet stems from our deep love and respect for mother nature. The negative impact of meat and dairy production on the environment is impossible to ignore, with animal agriculture causing 14.5% of greenhouse gas emissions and a whole host of other far-reaching consequences.
Meat and Wasted Resources
One of these issues is food waste, 20% of meat produced globally is lost or wasted through the food supply chain. While waste is the unfortunate reality of all food products, the resource-intensive nature of meat and dairy production makes it especially harmful because all the land, water, feed, pesticides, and fossil fuels that went into rearing livestock are also wasted.
In fact, 40% of all harvest crop loss comes from the animal agriculture industry, according to research. When we contrast this fact to the reality of 1 in 6 Americans going hungry every day here in the United States, it is hard to justify food waste, meat and dairy or otherwise.
Food Waste and the Environment
Food waste isn’t just an ethical issue, it actually has a significant impact on the environment. What we throw out gets taken to landfills where it is left to decompose in an anaerobic environment (i.e. without oxygen). As a result, landfills are one of the top three industrial emitters of methane.
Why is methane bad? Well, unlike with composting, which uses oxygen to break down food, decomposing food in landfills produces methane, which traps heat. Methane traps up to 86% more heat than carbon dioxide and is significantly increasing global warming.
Even though meat and fish make up only 8% of food waste, they produce 19% of the emissions. Methane isn’t only produced through food waste, but through cattle, too — this massive carbon footprint is just another reason to cut down on beef and dairy intake.
The Consumer and Food Waste
A significant reason for food waste on the consumer level is increased portions size. Our plates have grown over the years, with cheap fast food and a bang for your buck mentality. With bigger meals comes bigger waistlines, but also a bigger portion of food wastage.
Studies suggest that over 30% of food waste from restaurants is scraped off diners’ plates. This trend extends to grocery stores, where our eyes have become bigger than our stomachs, and food rots and spoils in our fridge instead of actually being used.
Fighting Food Waste
The best way to avoid food waste is not to create it in the first place. That’s where Thistle comes in.
By delivering ready-to-eat, perfectly portioned, plant-based food to your door, we’re hoping to help combat the food waste problem.
How Thistle Works
Thistle partners with farms and food producers committed to sustainable practices. We focus on providing you with local produce that tastes super fresh and also reduces food waste and carbon emissions caused by long-haul transit.
When it comes to meat and fish, we source only the most humanely reared and least-resource-intensive products for you to enjoy as part of a balanced, nutritious meal. For the reasons mentioned above, we do not serve beef or lamb at Thistle.
While we provide the option of meat and seafood, Thistle encourages a plant-forward lifestyle. We provide a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, whole grains, and healthy plant oils for you to enjoy in our flavor-filled, globally inspired meals. Remember, eating clean and reducing meat and dairy products intake is the most impactful way to reduce your ecological impact!
Our tried and tested packaging has been developed to keep your Thistle meals as fresh as possible. This has helped us cut down on food spoilage from transit.
When it comes to food waste at the consumer level, our customized meal plans make it easy for you to mix, match, and switch out meals depending on your appetite so you can avoid the issue of uneaten food. For when there are leftovers, we have some great meal hacks to transform yesterday’s dinner into today’s lunch!
In our own kitchen, we are committed to cutting down on waste. Through our efforts, Thistle produces half the waste of a restaurant and under 15% of that produced by a consumer who purchases groceries to cook at home. How do we do it?
- Repurposing: We have introduced wholesome and nutritious snacks and soups derived from high quality leftover ingredients into our meal plans. Not only do they give you an extra boost of vitamins and nutrients, but we’ve also saved 20,000 pounds of food going to waste.
- Replating: Thistle collaborates with the nonprofit Replate, to ensure perfectly edible ingredients we don’t use are given to communities in need of food security.
- Composting: Inedible food scraps and organic matter – think banana peels, skin from potatoes, or eggshells – are destined for the compost bin. The aerobic process of composting provides naturally nutrient-rich fertilizer that is great for plants and reduces the amount of food in landfill, and cuts down methane emissions.
Final Thoughts
Thistle is a community of earth-lovers and environmental educators. Joining the Thistle community means that you, too, can contribute to a happier, healthier environment.
We know that shifting dietary habits is tough, which is why we’ve tried to make it as tempting as possible with the freshest, tastiest meals made ready for you to enjoy. Reducing meat and dairy intake, and kicking the habit of food waste are part of nourishing a healthy relationship between you and what you eat.
SOURCES
Meat and Dairy Production | Our World in Data
Food Loss and Waste Facts | fao
Fifth of food lost to over-eating and waste | ED.AC
Food Waste in America | Rubicon
How cutting your food waste can help the climate | BBC
The Impact of the Meat Industry on Climate Change
At Thistle, we believe that leading a healthy lifestyle isn’t just about what we eat, but also about how we eat. We’re not talking about table manners here – we are talking about the environmental impact of our food choices on the planet.
What’s Meat Got To Do With It?
Our commitment to encouraging a plant-forward diet stems from our deep love and respect for mother nature. The negative impact of meat and dairy production on the environment is impossible to ignore, with animal agriculture causing 14.5% of greenhouse gas emissions and a whole host of other far-reaching consequences.
Meat and Wasted Resources
One of these issues is food waste, 20% of meat produced globally is lost or wasted through the food supply chain. While waste is the unfortunate reality of all food products, the resource-intensive nature of meat and dairy production makes it especially harmful because all the land, water, feed, pesticides, and fossil fuels that went into rearing livestock are also wasted.
In fact, 40% of all harvest crop loss comes from the animal agriculture industry, according to research. When we contrast this fact to the reality of 1 in 6 Americans going hungry every day here in the United States, it is hard to justify food waste, meat and dairy or otherwise.
Food Waste and the Environment
Food waste isn’t just an ethical issue, it actually has a significant impact on the environment. What we throw out gets taken to landfills where it is left to decompose in an anaerobic environment (i.e. without oxygen). As a result, landfills are one of the top three industrial emitters of methane.
Why is methane bad? Well, unlike with composting, which uses oxygen to break down food, decomposing food in landfills produces methane, which traps heat. Methane traps up to 86% more heat than carbon dioxide and is significantly increasing global warming.
Even though meat and fish make up only 8% of food waste, they produce 19% of the emissions. Methane isn’t only produced through food waste, but through cattle, too — this massive carbon footprint is just another reason to cut down on beef and dairy intake.
The Consumer and Food Waste
A significant reason for food waste on the consumer level is increased portions size. Our plates have grown over the years, with cheap fast food and a bang for your buck mentality. With bigger meals comes bigger waistlines, but also a bigger portion of food wastage.
Studies suggest that over 30% of food waste from restaurants is scraped off diners’ plates. This trend extends to grocery stores, where our eyes have become bigger than our stomachs, and food rots and spoils in our fridge instead of actually being used.
Fighting Food Waste
The best way to avoid food waste is not to create it in the first place. That’s where Thistle comes in.
By delivering ready-to-eat, perfectly portioned, plant-based food to your door, we’re hoping to help combat the food waste problem.
How Thistle Works
Thistle partners with farms and food producers committed to sustainable practices. We focus on providing you with local produce that tastes super fresh and also reduces food waste and carbon emissions caused by long-haul transit.
When it comes to meat and fish, we source only the most humanely reared and least-resource-intensive products for you to enjoy as part of a balanced, nutritious meal. For the reasons mentioned above, we do not serve beef or lamb at Thistle.
While we provide the option of meat and seafood, Thistle encourages a plant-forward lifestyle. We provide a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, whole grains, and healthy plant oils for you to enjoy in our flavor-filled, globally inspired meals. Remember, eating clean and reducing meat and dairy products intake is the most impactful way to reduce your ecological impact!
Our tried and tested packaging has been developed to keep your Thistle meals as fresh as possible. This has helped us cut down on food spoilage from transit.
When it comes to food waste at the consumer level, our customized meal plans make it easy for you to mix, match, and switch out meals depending on your appetite so you can avoid the issue of uneaten food. For when there are leftovers, we have some great meal hacks to transform yesterday’s dinner into today’s lunch!
In our own kitchen, we are committed to cutting down on waste. Through our efforts, Thistle produces half the waste of a restaurant and under 15% of that produced by a consumer who purchases groceries to cook at home. How do we do it?
- Repurposing: We have introduced wholesome and nutritious snacks and soups derived from high quality leftover ingredients into our meal plans. Not only do they give you an extra boost of vitamins and nutrients, but we’ve also saved 20,000 pounds of food going to waste.
- Replating: Thistle collaborates with the nonprofit Replate, to ensure perfectly edible ingredients we don’t use are given to communities in need of food security.
- Composting: Inedible food scraps and organic matter – think banana peels, skin from potatoes, or eggshells – are destined for the compost bin. The aerobic process of composting provides naturally nutrient-rich fertilizer that is great for plants and reduces the amount of food in landfill, and cuts down methane emissions.
Final Thoughts
Thistle is a community of earth-lovers and environmental educators. Joining the Thistle community means that you, too, can contribute to a happier, healthier environment.
We know that shifting dietary habits is tough, which is why we’ve tried to make it as tempting as possible with the freshest, tastiest meals made ready for you to enjoy. Reducing meat and dairy intake, and kicking the habit of food waste are part of nourishing a healthy relationship between you and what you eat.
SOURCES
Meat and Dairy Production | Our World in Data
Food Loss and Waste Facts | fao
Fifth of food lost to over-eating and waste | ED.AC
Food Waste in America | Rubicon
How cutting your food waste can help the climate | BBC
