By Frank Mitloehner

Julia Child once said the best people are the ones who love to eat.

I think I know what the legendary chef was getting at. There’s so much more to food than nourishment. It feeds souls, it evokes memories, it upholds traditions, it’s part of most of life’s important moments. From milk and cookies to a seven-course gourmet meal, food can say “I love you” in no uncertain terms.

By Frank Mitloehner

One might expect that a major breakthrough delivered by a well-respected organization – especially when the breakthrough seriously overrides a conclusion drawn merely two years earlier – to be backed by cold, hard facts. And yet, they are woefully absent from a Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) that calls unprocessed red meat an unconditional health risk.

Has the beef industry landed on a metric that finally gives it a rosy glow? Is a new system of measurement absolving the sector from much of the global warming blame it’s been shouldering? And if so, is it all too good to be true?

I welcome discourse where we listen to and learn from each other. Even arguments at times, provided they are respectful.

Dairy will continue to be part of diets around the world, and some regions would likely benefit from more dairy. Given so, looking at reducing its environmental impact will be critical as we tackle climate change. And the WWF is addressing just that in their latest report.

Climate change is the biggest challenge of our lifetime, which we must address with urgency, but swapping out a hamburger once a month isn’t how we do it.

Not only do exaggerated claims against animal protein such as meat distract us from major polluters, they blind us to potential climate change solutions.

By reducing the amount of food that’s lost or wasted, we can improve our greenhouse gas emissions while producing enough food to feed our growing population.

Marketing efforts distract us from the main climate change polluters by disproportionately blaming sectors such as animal agriculture and the products they produce such as meat and dairy.

By rethinking the way we measure methane from cattle, we make way for potential climate change solutions.