Half of our meal should always be fruits and vegetables, the commission’sPlanetary Health Dietguidelines advised.
But that’s not what raised eyebrows, particularly in the United States.
That’s smaller than a quarter-pound burger!
Getty Images / Frank Elbers / EyeEm
The average American would have to cut their red-meat consumption by 90%.
(The U.S. goal, for instance, is 26 to 28% below 2005 levels by 2025.)
And reducing beef consumption may be key.
Ruminant animals like cattle and lamb, in fact, contribute three-fifths of that massive amount.
Research groups like the EAT-Lancet panel say our efforts should include eating less beef, or none at all.
But some scientists and farmers propose a different future for your burger: grass-fed beef produced through regenerative agriculture.
The third source of greenhouse gases: the cattle themselves.
Enteric methane levels have been going up.
According to WRI calculations, ruminants already require two-thirds of the planet’s agricultural land.
We can’t just burn down more forest to make room.
But she’s not necessarily going to monitor the animalsshe’s inspecting the grass in the paddock.
Sometimes she gets two days before she has to herd them onto another 10-acre stretch of land.
Some- times it’s just 24 hours.
The land tells her.
Five years ago, Richards moved back to the 6,500-acre farm that her great-grandfather had bought in 1941.
So she studied holistic managed grazing, also called regenerative ranching.
How do cattle play a role in this process?
Richards' cattle now spend their entire lives eating grass or, in California’s dry season, hay.
But just a few.
They spread a fine layer of urine and manure as well.
When regenerative farmers stop applying chemical fertilizers, they reduce nitrate pollution in waterways and aquifers.
When they stop using pesticides, all manner of flora and fauna return to their fields, promoting biodiversity.
That surge in soil carbon is what has caught the attention of environmental scientists.
There’s a nascent but growing body of research measuring the effect of regenerative ranching on soil carbon.
“Regenerative grazing has huge potential to sequester carbon,” Stanley says.
But is all that sequestered carbon enough to counteract the environmental impact of beef?
That’s where debate currently roils.
Critics argue that regenerative ranching can’t possibly supply Earth’s growing demand for meat.
(Both of those factorsland and timeare also partly why grass-fed beef still costs more than conventional beef.)
Richards is already seeing her family’s rangelands heal after 80 years of close grazing.
Her calves put on weight more quickly.
That number may be increasing.
Consumers eliminating food waste is another.
“We have to look at things holistically,” she says.
