Serve vegan burgers in schools to trigger shift from meat, says report

Researchers urge governments to use public procurement of plant-based proteins to create cascading changes that help tackle climate change

To madeleine cuff

Governments should force prisons, schools, hospitals and other state-owned institutions to provide more vegan burgers, sausages and filets, triggering dramatic changes in global agriculture, researchers suggest. .

They identified public sourcing of plant-based proteins as a “super-leverage point” that would trigger cascading changes throughout the global food system.

Offering more plant-based foods in public institutions will help the alternative protein sector scale and lower costs, as well as increase public popularity of these products. UK, Exeter.

If 20% of all meat sold globally were replaced by vegan meat, up to 8 million square kilometers of land used for livestock could be replaced for climate-friendly planning. It could be relocated, said Tim Renton of the University of Exeter, who contributed to the report.

“It is clear that the demand for land use will decrease disproportionately, which is clearly a large source of emissions,” he says. “In doing so, you are freeing up land that can be replanted, replanted, or rewilded.”

Public sourcing of plant protein is one of three “super-leverage points” identified in the report as small interventions that could trigger a decarbonization cascade.

Introducing a mandate to use green hydrogen to produce at least 25% ammoniacal fertilizers would be another way, the report said. This is due to the increased deployment of electrolysers to bring the price of green hydrogen down to $1.50 per kilogram. This could make green hydrogen a viable fuel for ships and ultimately steel production.

On the other hand, requiring automakers to produce a certain amount of electric vehicles each year would help promote widespread adoption of zero-emission driving. This has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of electricity from renewable energy and related storage solutions by accelerating the development of lithium-ion batteries.

The idea was to design interventions that would trigger a positive tipping point at which the transition to a greener society would become unstoppable, says Renton. Acting as counterpoints, they warn that this tipping point is irreversible and could accelerate climate change.

“It has always been clear to me that sudden, self-propelled and often irreversible changes can occur in human social systems,” says Renton. “To avoid these bad weather tipping points, we need to find and trigger positive tipping points.”

The report, which will be launched today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is supported by the Bezos Earth Fund, the charity of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Interventions designed for governments around the world will encourage positive change rather than ban polluting activities, says Mark Meldrum of Systemiq, author of the report.

“None of these are bans on the old,” he says. “They aim to support and lift the new in order to make it as competitive and attractive as possible. increase.”

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