The document discusses the environmental, food, and health crises caused by high meat consumption and presents a solution focused on promoting plant-based diets. It highlights the significant impact of animal agriculture on greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and water consumption, alongside the issues of hunger and nutritional disparities. The organization Eva aims to replace animal products with plant-based options through awareness campaigns, community involvement, and educational initiatives to encourage meat moderation among the public.

1. Less meat, less heat
sustainability and our steak

2. Content
1. The problem: high meat consumption
- environmental crisis
- food crisis
- health crisis
2. Our solution
- challenges
- content
- approach

3. EVA’s aim is to maximally replace animal food by
plant based food, thus helping to create a more
people, animal and environmentally friendly society
We inform, organize, lobby and campaign
Our staff of 6 operates from our office in Ghent
We were founded in 2000

4. 1. The problem

5. Animal crisis
Environmental crisis
Health crisis
Food crisis

6. It’s about what goes in, and what comes out
Food crisis
Environmental crisis
Health crisis

7. « The livestock sector emerges as one of the top
two or three most significant contributors to the
most serious environmental problems, at every
scale from local to global.
The findings of this report suggest that it should
be a major policy focus when dealing with
problems of land degradation, climate change
and air pollution, water shortage and water
pollution and loss of biodiversity.»
Livestock’s Long Shadow, FAO 2006
1. Environmental crisis

8. 19 billion animals at any moment
or 55 billion per year (FAOSTAT)
Did you think only humans have an ecological footprint?

9. <
Animal agriculture is
responsible for 18% of
global greenhouse gas
emissions:
methane (CH4)
nitrous oxide (N2O)
carbondioxide (CO2)
(Livestock’s Long Shadow)
Environmental crisis: climate

10. Focus on methane?
GWP values and
lifetimes from
2007 IPCC AR4 [3]
Lifetime
(years)
GWP time horizon
20 years 100 years 500 years
Methane 12 72 25 7.6 (7)
Nitrous oxide 114 289 298 153 (156)
GWP (global warming potential) of methane increases when a time horizon
of 20 years is used instead of one of 100.

12. Mitigation?
« Available technologies for reduction of emissions
from livestock production, applied universally at
realistic costs, would reduce non-carbon dioxide
emissions by less than 20%. »
(McMichael et al, 2007)

13. Pasture land for cattle
Crops for cattle feed
An area the size of
Belgium, every year*
 global warming
loss of biodiversity
(*own calculations, based on Livestock’s Long
Shadow data)
Environmental crisis: deforestation

15. 1 kg pork = 16 kg of manure
Environmental crisis: manure

16. 2. Food crisis

17. Planet Earth
2010

18. Out of almost 7.000.000.000 people on this
planet
1.000.000.000 suffer from hunger, of which 200.000.000 are
children
25.000 people die of hunger or malnutrition every day
Now how many is that, really?

22. Feeding 55 billion animals per year to feed 7 billion people

23. Using large amounts of land
76% of all agricultural land
or 29% of Earth’s global land mass

24. 44% of global grain production
Using huge amounts of food and water…
15.000 liters of water for one kg of beef
(enough to shower for a year!)

25. Inefficient use of land

26. Inefficient use of food
7 to 10 kg grain for 1 kg of beef
4 to 5.5 kg grain for 1 kg of pork
2 to 3 kg grain for 1 kg of chicken

27. 3. Health crisis: meanwhile, in the west…

32. 4. Animal crisis

33. "The greatness of a nation and it's moral progress
can be judged by the way it's animals are treated.”
Gandhi

34. Past, present and future

35. Meat consumption and income

36. « The current global average meat consumption is
100 g per person per day, with about a ten-fold
variation between high-consuming and low-
consuming populations. 90 g per day is
proposed as a working global target, shared
more evenly, with not more than 50 g per day
coming from red meat from ruminants.»
(McMichael et al, Food, livestock production, energy, climate change, and health, The Lancet, Oct 2007.)

37. “The only environmentally responsible way to
accommodate the world’s increasing demand for
meat is to produce increased amounts of feed
crops without using more land. The only way to
accomplish that is to substantially increase
yields.”
(http://farmecon.com/Documents/Projections%20of%20Global%20Meat%20Production%20Through
%202050.pdf)

38. “Hence, some affected countries now face the double burden of
under-nutrition due to nutritional deficits in parts of their populations
and an increase in obesity-related chronic diseases due to
increased availability of foods of animal origin, high in saturated fat,
and energy-dense processed foods rich in fats and sugar. (…)
Economic development and associated urbanism could lead to diets
that are less protective against chronic diseases than are traditional
diets. »
McMichael et al.

39. Heavy stress on the meat production system
because of:
- Scarce land
- scarce water
- scarce fertilizer
- climate change
- rising consumer awareness
- health costs
The future

40. 70% increase in food production by 2050?
Less people
More land
A new green revolution
A significant dietary shift

41. So far for the bad news…
If too much meat is a
big part of the problem,
a big part of the
solution may lie in
eating differently.

43. 2. Our solution

44. Challenges
Less meat = a hard, negative message

45. Challenges
Government is reluctant to interfere (private matter
+ economic interests)

46. Challenges
Animal products are omnipresent in our lives;
alternatives aren’t, yet

47. Challenges
Large lack of knowledge concerning the problem,
both in theory and practice

48. Challenges
‘Less meat’ is easily interpreted as ‘no meat’

49. EVA: translating an important but difficult
message to something fun and doable

50. Making Meat Moderation
Mainstream & Marketable
Mmmmm!

51. ‘Go veggie’  meat reduction
A little bit less every day?
A vegetarian day a year, a week?
Meatless: less meat in meat?
‘Vegetarian before six’?
A veggie day
Thursday Veggie Day
Core messsage: Thursday = veggie day

53. Ghent: official proclamation, May 2009

55. 140.000 veggie street maps

56. 1.000 guides for chefs & staff

57. 35 city schools joining

58. Educational material

59. Courses for citizens and professionals
Website, newsletterse
Campaign material: posters, flyers, t-shirts, stickers,
placemats, frocks…
And also…

61. Results (nationally)
Large participation in city schools (95%)
2 city restaurants skip meat on Thursday
Redelijke bekendheid van de campagne op twee
jaar tijd (met weinig middelen)
Imitation of the concept in other Belgian cities
(Hasselt, Mechelen), interest from others (Antwerp,
Aalst, Vilvoorde…)
Financial support by the city of Ghent

62. Results (internationally)
Press from Time Magazine to Tokyo
Governments interested (Nottingham, Genua, Colombia…)
Imitation in Bremen (Germany) and Sao Paulo (Brazil)
Visiting researches from different countries
Inviations to speak in Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Washington.…
Support from IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri
Calls for veggie days at the Europees Parlement
Interest of NGO’s in many countries (France, Sweden, Taiwan,
US, UK…)

65. • concrete
• positive
• doable
• challenging
• fun
• credible
• empowering
• sticky
Shaping the message

66. Concrete
Compare e.g. with Swedish
government:
“try to replace one or two
meals a week by vegetarian
dishes or eat smaller portions of
meat”.

67. Concrete (2)

68. Positive
Using the carrot rather than
the stick
Compare with “Meatfree
Monday”

69. Doable
Daily portion of meat = a recent phenomenon

70. Research by Federal
Council Sustainable
Development (FRDO,
2009)
What about at most 2
meat dishes (as an
alternative for vegetarian
dishes) in public
cafetarias (schools,
businesses) by 2020?

71. Credible
A must for sustainability
and health

72. Empowering
If too much meat is a
big part of the
problem, a big part of
the solution lies in the
way we eat

73. Sticky
Simple
Unexpected
Concrete
Credible
Emotional
Story

74. Marketing
This message is marketable to
- Consumers
- Business (production, distribution, catering)
- Government

75. Contact info
Tobias Leenaert
tobias@vegetarian.be
(++32) (+0) 494 64 69 38
EVA vzw
St.-Pietersnieuwstraat 130
9000 Gent
Belgium