How Baby Boomers Can Move the Needle
Climate, health, healthcare, and environment - eating less meat is a win
The young will re-invent the world. The old will need to adapt. This couldn’t be truer in the world of changing climate and an aging population. Currently, one in six Americans is over 65. Those odds will not be getting better as it is projected that 21% of the population will be over 65 in 2030. We may be living longer, but are we healthier, and improving the environment at the same time? Having returned from the Reducetarian Summit this last week, it has become even more apparent that those of us, as almost a fifth of the population, will need to model the change the youth and young adults are giving us – if we expect our grandchildren to enjoy the earth as much as we did and do.
There is so much data available regarding animal agriculture, methane, and the climate – not to mention just the horrendous actions we have done to animals over the last century in the name of fighting communism, promoting animal dietary protein to the extreme, and fulfilling the needs of consumers who enjoy food coming fast to the plate. It’s sometimes hard to know where to start.
The first question to consider is. How are we going to feed an average of 264 pounds of meat protein per capita (2022 stats) while increasing the global population by 2 billion people by 2050? The answer is, that we won’t be able to without great harm to the ground and its biodiversity, the climate, water supplies, and the healthcare system. As baby boomers, we are setting ourselves up for rough retirement years of being Hot, Flat, and Crowded, and potentially unhealthy with an overburdened healthcare system – whatever it looks like in whatever country one might live in.
Question Two. How do we stay healthy as we age and reduce healthcare utilization? Our current U.S. status is quite sad. 28% of those on Medicare suffer from diabetes. 12% of our total population suffers from diabetes. I have friends who would rather spend time trying to find a reduced price for a $1000 diabetes medication than give eating more plants a try. There are those who prefer to wait in line for 30 minutes at a fast-food restaurant than assemble (not even cook!) a healthier or more environmentally-friendly meal option at home.
Does one need to be 100% plant-based to see improvements in cardiovascular health? Apparently not. A Mediterranean (not the chain restaurant variety of Italian) and or high-quality vegetarian or plant-based diet continues to show reproducible evidence to reduce or prevent cardiovascular disease and improve longevity, so much so, that the American College of Cardiology has revised their dietary guidelines to include focusing on primary sources of protein from plants and overall reducing meat consumption.
Finally – Question Three. For those millions of baby boomers like me who grew up with grocery store counters full of meat and are bombarded with meat at every turn, how are we going to get our protein in 2035? With more people and a warmer climate will come a need for more water, or improved water management. We will need products that have a lower water-to-final product-to-consumer ratio. About 1,850 gallons of water is needed to produce a single pound of beef, comparable to only 39 gallons of water per pound of vegetables. We currently surrender acres of edible grain, such as soybeans and oats, for intensive animal farming. 80% of global soybean crops go to feed animals instead of humans, a waste of “pass-through” commodity processing.
There will be many non-animal options depending on what your focus is – health, environment, cost. From whole foods plant-based to fermentation and cell-cultured meats to combinations of seitan and tofu that replicate animal protein substitutes, there will be the possibility that you will not be able to tell if your bacon came from pork raised in a six-story confined space or stem cell research. It is reported that alternative meats will achieve full parity by 2035. Impressive. From salmon to real milk, the precision cell fermentation process will bring environmentally-friendly food to your table.
Will alternative meats make us healthier? The studies are not there yet. Do they have the means to impact the climate? Yes, particularly as their energy sources to produce the alternatives convert to renewable energies.
It sounds so simple it is mind-boggling, yet hard when we are faced with primarily large-portion meat options at restaurants, happy chicken egg cartons. pastoral farms on sausage labels in the grocery store, and an advertisement everywhere for bigger and better burgers with cheese and loads of sauces. There is absolutely nothing happy about animals re-engineered to live in cages. There is also absolutely nothing happy that 90% of our antibiotics are being used on animals to get them to be heavier and healthier in highly dense conditions. Those antibiotics go somewhere and research indicates it might be affecting our gut microbiome. There is nothing happy about feeding more animals than humans over the next 25 years.
As baby boomers, what can we do NOW to help this younger generation who are leading the way in technology to keep our planet green and healthier for the next generations, and be accountable a bit for what we participated in over the last 50 years?
Learn to eat more plants and less meat. Yes, it takes a bit of effort to seek out restaurants with vegetarian and vegan options that aren’t cauliflower steaks and spaghetti with marinara sauce. So, let’s get started simply by looking at what eating less meat looks like per week to reduce climate emissions:
- 4 ounces of beef per week - about the size of the palm of your hand or a deck of cards. (that analogy has been around for decades!)
- 8 ounces of chicken per week
- 7 ounces of fish per week
In essence, that is reducing meat and fish intake to 4-ounce portions to five meals a week:
Beef – one meal per week
Chicken – two meals per week
Fish – two meals per week
Load up the remaining meals with plant-based proteins, vegetarian dishes, a variety of 20,000 plants, and more!
We CAN:
Eat Responsibly
Eat More Plants
Eat Like Your Earth Depends on It