We need to think big to create a food system that works for all.
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In the face of unprecedented climate catastrophe, more and more Americans are waking up to the truth: to slow the threat of climate change, we need to adapt and rethink our relationship with the Earth and its resources. One of the proposed solutions to this problem is the Green New Deal, a sweeping initiative to drastically cut the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions and encourage sustainable development. While the proposal is ambitious, a massive carbon emitter is not meaningfully addressed in the Green New Deal: our industrialized food system.
What is the Green New Deal?
While the proposal entered the mainstream conversation in recent years, the idea of a “Green New Deal” has been around since 2007. Based on the idea that big problems require even bigger solutions, the Green New Deal proposes that we change the entire nature of our energy system to meet the challenge at hand: investing in the jobs, infrastructure, and technology necessary to sustain our economy while drastically reducing our carbon emissions.
In its current form, the Green New Deal is a congressional resolution to shift to 100% clean, renewable energy. This would pave the way to net-zero emissions by 2050, while boosting the economy and creating new, green jobs in the process. It envisions a future where we can travel from city to city on high-speed rail lines. Where we can fuel our cars at electric charging stations instead of at gas stations. Where we can harness the power of the sun and wind to power our homes and businesses.
The proposal is certainly ambitious and has drawn in plenty of criticism. However, climate activists argue that at the rate we’re progressing towards irreversible global warming, these measures are the bare minimum we can all do to preserve the Earth as we know it.
While a transformation towards a renewable energy system would go far to slow the threat of climate change, it would not address one of the biggest carbon-emitting industries in the United States: our food system. However, with the same urgency and ambitious thinking that gave rise to the Green New Deal, together, we can rebuild a food system that meets our needs without harming our planet.
Why do we need to address factory farming?
The Green New Deal calls for all United States industries to take responsibility for meeting the sustainability needs of the 21st Century. The animal agriculture industry is far behind on sustainability, with over 90% of animal products on grocery store shelves coming from factory farms. These factory farms confine tens of thousands of pigs, cows, chickens, and other animals raised for meat in tight warehouse facilities, where they will spend their entire lives before being slaughtered for food.
Breeding, feeding, and killing billions of animals for food requires vast amounts of resources, and results in massive amounts of pollution. In fact, according to a study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, animal agriculture accounts for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions—more emissions than the entire transportation sector combined.
One-third of Earth’s landmass is used for raising animals for human consumption, destroying habitats and causing widespread deforestation. The impacts of factory farming are most devastating in rural communities surrounding the massive facilities, where tons of animal waste pollute groundwater, soil, and air with ammonia and other toxic chemicals. This subjects local residents to the debilitating effects of lung disease and respiratory infection.
The facts make one thing abundantly clear: our food system, as we know it, is not sustainable. Industrial farms, and the corporations that operate them, are driven by the pursuit of maximum profit, at the expense of the environment, public health, and, with the threat of climate change steadily increasing, the survival of our planet. We need to make changes—and make them fast—to transform our broken food system into one that works for us all.
How do we address factory farming?
We know something has to change, but how do we do it? A great way to start is to make plant-based food more accessible to everyone. As individuals, leaving animals off our plates is the single biggest way we can each reduce our carbon footprint. Transforming our food system away from animal agriculture would not only drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it would also free up huge amounts of wild land that has been lost to agriculture—a land mass equivalent to the size of the US, China, Australia, and the EU combined.
We’re already seeing a substantial shift towards plant-based eating—with two in five Americans trying to add more plant-based foods to their diets. This shift is proliferated by the rise in alternative protein technology, supported by research and investors like The Good Food Institute, which recreates the taste and texture of meat using plants or lab-grown cells—no factory farm required.
And, similarly to how a Green New Deal would help people transition to work in renewable energy, a more sustainable food system wouldn’t leave farmers behind. Initiatives such as Mercy for Animals’ Transfarmation Project partner with former animal farmers to integrate them into a plant-based food system, shifting their operations toward products like hemp, peas, oats, mushrooms, and greens, and connecting them with businesses to buy from them. Transfarmation's philosophy embodies what it truly means to create a food system that works for us all: for workers, for consumers, for animals, and for the environment.
Even though our food system is not meaningfully addressed in the Green New Deal, we can all apply the same principles to rethink and reimagine a more sustainable food system for the 21st Century. In fact, one of the Green New Deal’s most outspoken advocates, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, recognizes the need to take on our food system:
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“Listen, we gotta address factory farming. Maybe we shouldn’t be eating a hamburger for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Like, let’s keep it real.”
So, together, let’s keep it real. We won’t be able to fix our broken food system overnight, but we can all play an important part in fighting factory farming, slowing the impacts of climate change, and creating a food system that works for us all by opting for plant-based foods.
Amanda Waxman
