What you learn by eating legumes or wearing a mask

We have seen it recently with the controversial campaign

Less meat, more life

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While we buy a state-of-the-art electric car because we want to be more neutral, it is difficult for us to see the impact of our food plate, which is less and less local and seasonal.

While supporting billionaire policies for the construction of renewable energy, we doubt more than proven scientific data on the main source of emissions and loss of biodiversity on a global scale: our food system and the changes in land use it causes.

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It is difficult to communicate about a complex challenge such as the transformation of our eating habits, in which there are so many interest groups and so many nuances and in which the consequences are not seen in the short term.

It is difficult for the media to delve into how our decisions influence the climate change that is behind heat waves, floods or fires.

We continue naming with the

generic words "meat" or "livestock" to a whole universe of options.

However, the sheep that graze in the pasture do not have the same impact on our health or on the planet, as the macrofarm pig fed with transgenic soy feed imported from the Amazon.

The eggs of free-range hens are not the same as those of 23,000 million broilers, with hormone and antibiotic treatments.

The campaigns do not doubt that extensive livestock farming is necessary to maintain certain natural ecosystems, such as the herds of sheep and goats in the meadows that we have so close. It is the one that creates the most employment, fixes the population in the towns and maintains the territory. During my trip to the 28 most depopulated provinces, I interviewed many of these shepherds, who know the character of each of their sheep and who almost hold the trade out of devotion rather than profit. Administrative difficulties, paperwork and the high margin of intermediaries mean that they do not become competitive with the meat industry.

The same occurs with agriculture, which is abandoning the traditional practices of caring for the land, to move to an agribusiness in which around 30% of production is wasted and in which the producer may only receive 1% of what we pay. The new European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) continues without solving these market failures and without incorporating the negative externalities of what we buy. Although there are young people who dare to work in the primary sector, the market drags them to intensive agricultural and livestock production systems, in which the profit comes from quantity rather than quality, in which we do not reward the care of our health and that of ecosystems.

And so the towns have emptied themselves of people dedicated to pastoralism and agricultural culture.

And the pastures of herds are emptied, to be filled with solar panels and monocultures.

And our palate and pocketbook are preferring tomatoes that do not taste like tomatoes and processed sausages for which we only have to open a plastic wrap that will give us back the sea in 30 years.

It seems inherent in the human condition to think that aspiring to live better is to do daily what was exceptional for our grandparents

It seems inherent to the human condition to think that aspiring to live better is to do daily what was exceptional for our grandparents; is to get as close as possible to the way of life projected by people with more resources. This causes billions of people to inhabit the planet well beyond the capacities it can support, and the other billions want to approach that profile.

With regard to food, the daily demand for animal protein, in much greater quantities than we need for good health, has triggered the creation of macro-farms and overexploitation of fish.

The data on the impact of intensive livestock farming on emissions, deforestation, contamination by chemicals or monocultures for feed have been repeated for more than a decade.

Like the damage of trawling that no longer only exploits the oceans, but also releases almost three million tons of CO² per day.

But, how to be able to stop our desire to devour the Earth?

in a couple of generations as if it did not have sufficiently marked limits?

Ultimately, how to overcome our immunity to change as humanity?

The pandemic is something much closer and more visible than climate change. Every inhabitant of the planet has had to be in confinement and knows someone who died from covid-19, more or less close. We already know that it is an airborne virus, that even when vaccinated we can spread it and that the mask is essential. The habit of the mask, ventilation and distance is much clearer, unequivocal and temporary than those we have to acquire to reverse climate change. However, it is difficult for us to keep the mask over our nose, we jump for joy when they remove the obligation, we close the windows to maintain the temperature and even in the middle of the fifth wave it is difficult for us to see that anyone can be a vector of contagion.

These months of pandemic with wave after wave show us that changing habits is not an easy task, and neither is it easy to perceive the positive impact that the sum of individual changes can have.

Meat or fish?

A few weeks ago I participated in a face-to-face meeting with a hundred representatives from all sectors, from administration to business, from universities to entrepreneurship.

We were united by the intention to transform reality by seeing the consequences of the pandemic (although only 4% wore a mask in open spaces).

To choose the dinner menu, the question was "meat or fish?".

In rural Spain, with no nearby coastline and without giving any further explanation about what meat it was.

"Meat or fish?".

No one was surprised by the question and no attempt was made to change the menu to the seasonal Castilian garden.

Only one person asked about vegetarian options and another was interested in the origin of the food and why there was no excess food.

If this is a specific election of agents of change concerned about environmental issues, what will the daily decision of families who need to fill the shopping cart at the lowest possible cost and without time to cook be?

The answer lies in the purchase of processed and packaged products, without looking at provenance, or fingerprint, or what the meat is like.

It would be key to start introducing negative externalities in prices and accelerate courageous public policies

The pandemic has been the clearest, most global and simultaneous alarm possible.

It continues and will continue to sound dramatically in many countries, reminding us that it will not be the last crisis, if we continue without guaranteeing a just social base for all people, within the limits set by the ecosystems.

We have exceeded limits, as we are also taught by the more than 700 deaths from heat in Canada, the floods in Germany, the fires in Siberia or an Amazon that now emits more CO² than it is capable of capturing.

It would be key to start introducing negative externalities in prices, accelerate courageous public policies, and realize that if we as consumers make a brand richer, we can also benefit the small local farmers who take care of our roots and the land. .

For the radical transformation that we need, it will not be enough to wait for million-dollar electricity transport policies, nor a vaccine that saves us from climate change, nor will coercive policies be enough. For the regeneration that compensates the accumulated ecological debt, we need each other, changing the way in which we as citizens and organizations inhabit the planet. Our diet or the continuous use of a mask are clear examples of how small habits acquired globally can become so significant when it comes to overcoming the immunity to change that we have as a society.

Rosa Castizo

has been working on sustainable development and climate change for Latin America for 16 years. It promotes rural regeneration and social innovation through advocacy and entrepreneurship initiatives.