Sustainable nutrition: “You don’t need substitute products to save the climate”

Mr. Rubach, in the discussion about a sustainableNutritionThere are always calls for a more plant-based diet. The federal government also advocates in its nutrition strategy: “More plant-based foods and less meat for the climate.” Do you agree with that?

First of all, there are no empirical findings as to what proportion is plant-basedGroceriesthe diet would be more sustainable. At best, these are model calculations that are calculated based on input data, for example on the climate footprint of individual foods, and usually do not take the nutrient content of the food into account. The underlying assumptions of such models are often utopian, for example that the entire world would eat a vegan or vegetarian diet. In addition, you would first have to quantify exactly how much plant-based food there should be in your diet. The supply balances of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the National Consumption Study 2 show that the proportion of plant-based foods in Germany is already between 65 and 75 percent. There are no studies or evidence that, for example, we would have any added value for the environment or health if we eat a plant-based diet of 80 percent or more.

Nevertheless, meat and animal products almost always perform worse in terms of the climate balance than their plant-based counterparts.

Of course, the footprint of animal foods increases because the animals use the plant-based food and concentrate the nutrients, so to s...
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