2024 March Board Book

million effort led by a Nobel laureate, uses gene-editing technology in an effort to eliminate that pollution by reengineering the animals' gut microbes. Given the world's growing appetite for meat and dairy, these novel ventures are crucial to inching us toward international and national climate goals. Yet they beg the question: Wouldn't it be easier to ditch milk, cheese, and beef for plant-based alternatives? Why fght nature when there's an easier solution, at least from a scientifc perspective? Research shows that even a modest skew away from meat-based diets can shrink an individual's carbon footprint as much as 75 percent. As it turns out, however, untangling cows from the climate equation is enormously complicated — especially in the United States, where the industry, worth $275 billion annually, boasts the world's fourth-largest cattle population and is its top beef and dairy producer. Achieving a cheeseburger-free America faces formidable challenges. Beyond overcoming cultural shifts — the country's per-capita consumption of mozzarella, to name one example, averages one pound a month — lies the challenge of meeting nutritional demands and rebalancing the intricacies of an agricultural, food, and industrial economy inextricably linked to livestock farming. For these reasons, greener diets are but one prong in a larger set of food-based solutions for curtailing human-caused climate change, Stephen Sturdivant, an environmental engineer at the Environmental Protection Agency, told Grist. "We need a comprehensive combination of strategies to achieve a truly sustainable future," he said. "We can't just cherry pick our way to get there."

Brendan Smialowski // AFP via Getty Images / Grist

The nation's taste for meat and dairy is undeniable Updated Jan 24, 2024

In addition to a steady, decade-long-rise in beef consumption, which hit 20 billion pounds in 2021, Americans gobbled up 12 percent more cheese, butter, and ice cream than in the previous year, continuing an upward trend that started half a century ago.