Environment

Concern for Environment is pushing Britons to eat less meat

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28% of Britons now identify as "meat reducers" according to a new study commissioned by More Than Carrots. For Londoners, the number was slightly higher - 32% or 2.3 million.

Surveying the respondents that identified as 'meat reducers' - 26 per cent cut down on meat due to its carbon impact on the planet, while 15 per cent wanted to help reduce deforestation.

Annette Burgard, Founder of More Than Carrots, added: "Climate change is at a tipping point and a lot of people are beginning to realise the enormous impact that reducing meat in their diet can have on the environment."

One of the reasons More Than Carrots was founded was to help provide a list of restaurants with meat-free options on the menu.

Choosing a cruelty free plant-based diet, is one action that one can take every day.

UK diners were beginning to realise the "enormous impact that reducing meat in their diet can have on the environment", they struggle, especially at restaurants," Burgard commented. "To help them, we are providing the first guide that enables diners to directly compare restaurants, and visit the ones that make it easy for them to choose the most appealing veggie option."

Professor of Philosophy at University Hertfordshire, Constantine Sandis, recognized that as vegan options for eating out grow, it "normalises opting out of meat" and becomes easier to do so.

But we need to do more because eating meat is making the planet sick, in the words of Greenpeace.

"The livestock sector â€” raising cows, pigs and chickens â€” generates as much greenhouse gas emissions as all cars, trucks and automobiles combined. Cattle ranchers have clear cut millions of square kilometers of forests for grazing pastures, decimating natural â€œcarbon sinks.â€

Shifting to plant-based foods, strictly for the environment, not for health reasons or in sympathy for the animals, seems to be a new and most welcome phenomena that benefits everyone.