Germany: GreenPeace want to kill 75% of cows and people need eat insects https://bit.ly/3d3M47V A new study commissioned by the environmental organization Greenpeace comes to the conclusion that if Germans were to eat differently, up to 70 million additional people could be supplied with food. The scenario also includes reducing the number of animals by around 75 percent. In a new study for Greenpeace, the Oko-Institut has worked out the consequences of a different diet that is classified as healthy. In the summary of the study, Greenpeace lists only positive effects. The organization also sees only advantages in the 75 percent reduction in animal population, which would go hand in hand with a healthy diet for everyone in Germany. The change in diet would free up 40 percent of arable land In addition to the reduced number of livestock, the study assumes that the consumption of animal-based foods is also declining in Germany. The Oko-Institut uses the "Planetary Health Diet (PHD)" concept from the EAT Lancet Commission as a guide. The Commission's report deals with ways to achieve sustainable and healthy nutrition with a growing world population. If the Commission's calculations are used as a basis, Germans would have to reduce their consumption of animal-based foods by 75 percent. According to the Oko-Institut, this would free up 40 percent of the arable land because animal feed would no longer have to be grown on it. Political goals, which initially lead to a shortage of available arable land, have already been taken into account here. This includes: the rewetting of 80 percent of the moors, biodiversity areas on 10 percent of the arable and grassland, 30 percent organic farming. An increase in the self-sufficiency rates for rapeseed, grain maize, forage legumes, legumes, soybeans (100 percent each) and vegetables (67 percent) was also assumed. This results in an additional fertilizer requirement of 1.2 million tons of CO2 equivalents. Despite the inclusion of these factors, according to the calculations of the Oko-Institut, 40 percent of the arable land would be available for other uses. If food for export were grown on this land, it could feed 70 million people. According to the study, if the areas were forested, a carbon sink of around 20.4 million tons of CO2 could be created within the next 23 years. At the same time, the change in diet would save 75 percent of greenhouse gases from agriculture. Overall, agriculture is responsible for 13 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Germany; 80 percent of this share is due to animal husbandry. From Greenpeace's point of view, the current per capita meat consumption in Germany is far too high because it exacerbates the climate crisis and is harmful to people's health. The Germans would have to "feed themselves in a way that is healthy for them and the planet". A change in diet reduces the risk of diabetes, colon cancer and heart attacks, for example. "We are now demanding comprehensive measures from politicians in order to achieve the goal of the nutritional transition in the coming years. The official nutritional recommendations need to be adjusted," says Martin Hofstetter, agricultural expert at Greenpeace. Animal stocks should be reduced and the environmental costs of milk and meat production should be taken into account. Unfortunately, the study only touches on what the extremely reduced animal stocks would mean for agriculture. There it says in conclusion: "The often quoted maxim of quality instead of quantity will have a significant impact on value creation in rural areas and jobs in agriculture, but could also bring enormous advantages at the same time." How the reduction in animal husbandry can be socially cushioned could be one of several unresolved questions for which there is a short-term need for research and clarification.