If we ended industrial animal agriculture, there'd suddenly be more than enough food for everyone, we'd essentially end animal cruelty, no one would die, and we'd take a huge bite out of the climate and ecological emergency. We could do this basically overnight.
@ClimateHuman I like the idea, but I’m pessimistic about your ambitious timescale.
There are so many aspects of the industrial farming/food complex that will need to be disentangled and rebuilt. To take just one random example: small farms rely on small local abattoirs, but almost all of these have been driven out of business in recent years by the supermarket dominated market model. The supermarket system demands conformity, so rare breeds become rarer, animals must be forced to grow quickly and our diets become more homogenous and less nutritious.
As well as market reform, this requires consumer awareness to change. The message from small organic farms like ours is to eat less meat, but buy the best you can, from a trusted supplier, and be ready to try things that you probably can’t recognise but your great-grandparents would have enjoyed.
It also means eating chicken only about once a month, at most, which will be counter to the messaging from the health lobby in recent years.
It’s a system-level challenge, to be sure, but I’m up for it!