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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Special Report on Climate Change and Land, released earlier this month, recommends that people should eat a balanced diet rich in plant-based foods.
The media has widely reported that we should avoid red meat altogether - but this is inaccurate, UNE scientist and report co-author Professor Annette Cowie said.
Reassuring news for Australia, one of the biggest consumers of meat in the world, and New England graziers.
"Eating a healthy balanced diet is good for people, and good for the planet," Professor Cowie said.
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The report (Chapter 5) advises that diets high in coarse grains, pulses, fruits and vegetables, and nuts and seeds, and low in energy-intensive animal-sourced and discretionary foods (such as sugary beverages), 'present major opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from food systems and improving health outcomes'.
Meat analogues such as imitation meat (from plant products), cultured meat, and insects may help us transition to healthier, sustainable diets.
We should make sure we eat foods with a low carbon footprint, Professor Cowie advised - which could mean reducing meat consumption consistent with healthy eating guidelines.
"If your food is produced locally, and in season," she said, "it's likely to have a lower carbon footprint, as well as being more nutritious.
"Our systems actually have a lower carbon footprint than the systems used, for example, in North America and Europe."
Here in New England, and in Australia in general, she said, farmers grow their stock on land that is too steep, infertile, rocky, or dry to be used for cropping; the animals do not compete directly with plant production.
Livestock farming worldwide, though, is often carbon-intensive: the animals are housed in most seasons, and fed on grain imported from the other side of the planet, especially if it comes from an area associated with tropical deforestation.
Professor Cowie is adjunct professor at UNE's School of Environmental and Rural Science, and principal climate research scientist at the NSW Department of Primary Industries. She is task leader of an International Energy Agency Bioenergy research network; land degradation advisor on the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility; and a member of the Science Policy Interface of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.