This week at Lunch ‘n Learn, Mr Clements gave an informative presentation on ‘Future Food Systems’ and ethically feeding 8 billion people on a warming planet.

Mr Clements asked thought-provoking questions, including ‘What does food mean to you?’ and ‘How much meat are we eating?’, to help us understand the impact our diets have on the planet. Culture and health are deeply embedded into what we eat, so it is difficult to change a person’s diet, even with the shocking facts that show the detrimental effects it may have on our planet. To put the shocking statistics of how much meat we eat into perspective, if we were to kill humans at the same rate that we kill land animals to be eaten each year, it would only take weeks for the 8 billion people to seize to exist. However, if we were to include fish in this equation, it would only take a matter of days.

Mr Clements then showed us a graph showing the global warming effect (kg of greenhouse gasses) per 100g of protein against different food sources. This graph showed that beef has a global warming effect about eight times that of farmed fish and twenty times that of tofu. He also brought to our attention that while farmed animal product only account for 18% of our global calorie consumption, it takes up 83% of our land!

To help make our food systems more sustainable, Mr Clements suggests adopting more plant-heavy diets; explore new types of farming and alternative proteins; and consider cultured meat.
The Lunch ‘n Learners asked Mr Clements lots of questions today, one asking why he chose the topic. His response was that food sustainability is his “second big passion after physics”.

Gaby da Silveira Pinheiro, STEAM Prefect and Sixth Form Student