Sustainability News by Date
listings 1-5 of 5
August 2019
08-27-2019
Photo: Bard Professor Gidon Eshel
Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard Farm,Division of Science, Math, and Computing,Environmental and Urban Studies Program,Environmental/Sustainability |
Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard Farm,Division of Science, Math, and Computing,Environmental and Urban Studies Program,Environmental/Sustainability |
08-27-2019
Photo: Photo by Tom Wool
Meta: Type(s): Alumni | Subject(s): Environmental/Sustainability | Institutes(s): Bard Undergraduate Programs |
Meta: Type(s): Alumni | Subject(s): Environmental/Sustainability | Institutes(s): Bard Undergraduate Programs |
08-27-2019
Meta: Type(s): Student | Subject(s): Bard Graduate Programs,Environmental and Urban Studies Program,Environmental/Sustainability | Institutes(s): Bard Center for Environmental Policy,Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities |
08-10-2019
Photo: Bard Professor Gidon Eshel
Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Environmental and Urban Studies Program,Environmental/Sustainability | Institutes(s): Bard Undergraduate Programs |
Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Environmental and Urban Studies Program,Environmental/Sustainability | Institutes(s): Bard Undergraduate Programs |
08-08-2019
“While widely replacing meat with plants is logistically and culturally challenging, few competing options offer comparable multidimensional resource use reduction,” write Eshel and coauthors Paul Stainier, Alon Shepon, Akshay Swaminathan, all of Harvard University.
In their study, “Environmentally Optimal, Nutritionally Sound, Protein and Energy Conserving Plant Based Alternatives to U.S. Meat,” Eshel and his coauthors used a computer model to devise hundreds of plant-based diets to replace either beef alone or all three dominant U.S. meat types: beef, poultry and pork. Plant-based diets consisted predominantly of soy, green pepper, squash, buckwheat and asparagus. The authors’ goal was to model a range of plant replacement diets that were at least as nutritious, if not more beneficial, than the meats they replaced, while also assessing their environmental impact. Diets were modeled to exactly match the protein content of the meat they replace—13 grams of protein per day from beef or 30 grams of protein per day from all three meat types—while also satisfying 43 other nutrient requirements, such as vitamins and fatty acids.
Buckwheat and tofu jointly delivered a full third of the total protein of diets that replaced all meats, yet accounted for only 12 percent of the nitrogen fertilizer and water and less than 22 percent of the cropland needed to produce the meats they replaced. Soy contributed the most protein to beef-replacing diets, but accounted for only six percent of the overall nitrogen fertilizer needed to produce beef. Replacing meat with plant alternatives was estimated to save approximately 29 million hectares of cropland, three billion kilograms of nitrogen fertilizer, and 280 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide per year. Food-related water use was projected to rise by 15 percent.
Gidon Eshel is a research professor of environmental physics at Bard College. He earned a BA from Haifa University and MA, MPhil, and PhD degrees from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.
Photo: Bard College Research Professor Gidon Eshel. Photo by Tony Rinaldo
Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard Farm,Division of Science, Math, and Computing,Environmental/Sustainability |
Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard Farm,Division of Science, Math, and Computing,Environmental/Sustainability |
listings 1-5 of 5