(GRE) WWF TOOL TO BOOST PLANT BASED FOOD SALES

The World Wildlife Fund has launched a tool for supermarkets to align their sales with their climate goals, urging them to sell more plant-based food than animal protein.

With retailers playing a key role in the food system’s emissions and its transition towards a low-impact industry, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is helping them with a new methodology to enable the protein transition.

Meat and dairy take up 57% of agrifood emissions, and up to a fifth of the world’s total emissions, while also using up 80% of farmland and 30% of the global freshwater supply. But despite this disproportionate use of resources, livestock farming only supplies 17% of the world’s calories and 38% of its protein.

Experts have suggested that emissions from the food system alone will blow us past our 1.5°C budget, and maybe even the 2°C mark – there’s no way for us to meet our climate targets without addressing agriculture.

On the flip side, vegan diets have been found to reduce emissions, land use and water pollution by 75% compared to those rich in meat. And even if we replace just half of our meat consumption with plant-based alternatives, it can lower farm and land use emissions by nearly a third, while halting deforestation and reducing hunger by 3.6%.

Hence, the protein transition – i.e., the shift away from animal- to plant-based food sources. Dietary change is the most effective lever in lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and as gatekeepers of both sides of the supply chain, retailers play a crucial role in enabling this shift.

“Retailers are critical in accelerating the transition to healthy and sustainable diets, particularly in countries with high consumption-related environmental impacts,” said Brent Loken, global food lead scientist at WWF. “This transition requires a rapid transformation of food environments and for healthy and sustainable foods to be made more affordable and accessible to all.” More of this article (green queen) - link - more like this (animal husbandry) - link - more like this (arable farming) - link - more like this (arable farming) - link