Agrifood sectors (dairy, poultry and aquaculture) are growing immensely to meet the global food demand of ever increasing population However, a global drive is meaninglessly linking animal agrifood sector with climate change. This is creating chaos at consumer level and disrupting the agribusinesses to a great deal. Moreover, taking the leverage, plant based animal alternative are continuously being promoted and encouraging people to switch to eco-friendly diet to lower the impact on the environment. Here, it is very important to understand the enormous benefits that agrifood have for human and environment.
Agrifood sector is an asset, not liability – replacing it or eliminating it won’t solve the climatic problem. It will further deteriorate the climate by disturbing the biogenic cycle. Human health will be greatly affected by it as excluding animal based food means eliminating 39 essential nutrients from human diet. Furthermore, almost 1.3 billion people are linked with agrifood for livelihood. Encouraging this drive of eliminating animal based food will be catastrophic.
Agrifood has great potential in positively impacting the planet. To meet the food demand of the world, many advancements have been made in agrifood sectors to lower its impact on climate, and Farmers and Stakeholders are adapting to carbon neutral farming. The idea is to reduce the footprint by making changes in the potential contributors of environmental pollution on the farm level. Globally, programs like Alltech E-CO2, are providing effective solutions to farmers for lowering their overall carbon footprint.
There are many other ways the climate change can be addressed by shifting the focus from agrifood to the right culprit which are automobiles and food waste etc. Food itself is not the issue until it get wasted and add to GHG emissions. An immediate mass awareness campaign should be rolled to make people understand the importance of agrifood and educate them about the potential risks associated with food waste. Doing so, will discourage the global drive of excluding animal protein from human diet. Agrifood sectors should collaboratively work to address this global issue and revisit its approach.