It’s time for a Green New Meal: An interview with Noa Dalzell

In her report for the Global Center for Climate Justice, A Green New Meal: How Factory Farming Fuels Climate Injustice & What We Can Do About It, Noa Dalzell exposes factory farming’s destructive impact on our planet, but the report doesn’t just describe the problem. Building on the same logic that informed The Green New Deal, Dalzell proposes sweeping solutions that will transform our food system from the ground up. We had the pleasure of talking to Dalzell about the inspiration behind her work, how she conducted her research, and what we can do to make the Green New Meal a reality.

Whether through a documentary, an article, a book, or a college class, a lot of people have a “mind-blowing” moment when they first find out about all of the issues with our food system. How did you first encounter the connection between the food we eat and other systemic issues, like climate change?

I didn’t have a typical “aha” moment like a lot of people. I would describe my process of becoming aware of how our food system intersects with other forms of oppression as a sort of gradual awakening. The deeper I got into the climate movement—and the more I learned about the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, deforestation, and water usage associated with factory farming—the more compelled I felt to act, and the more confused I was about why there were not more organizations focused on regulating industrial animal agriculture.

I began my career working on climate mitigation policy, and for three years, I served as the director of the State Climate Policy Network at Climate XChange, where I worked with thousands of diverse stakeholders to pass state-level climate legislation. As you’d expect, on the climate mitigation side, there’s a ton of emphasis on regulating the oil and gas industry and transitioning away from fossil fuels. There’s a shared understanding that actors like ExxonMobil and Shell have played a pernicious role in exacerbating the climate crisis and should be held accountable for their misinformation campaigns. But there is a massive disconnect related to agriculture, particularly animal agriculture. The industry is responsible for about 14.5% of global GHG emissions, more than the entire global transportation sector. So, I definitely expected it to be a major focus of global decarbonization efforts, and when I began attending the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) meetings, I was pretty stunned at how overlooked animal agriculture was in policy discussions.

In 2019, I attended COP 25, the international climate negotiations in Madrid, Spain. At this conference — supposedly a worldwide gathering of climate leaders—I could hardly find plant-based food options, and most delegates rolled their eyes at a conversation about animal agriculture. I thought to myself: how could a convening among self-proclaimed climate champions neglect the impacts of this highly impactful industry? I covered this experience more extensively at COP 26 in Glasgow, where it remained abundantly clear that the mainstream climate movement continued to overlook the environmental impact of factory farming. For example, while 100+ countries signed the Global Methane Pledge in an unprecedented commitment to reducing methane emissions, they failed to even mention animal agriculture despite the fact that livestock emissions account for roughly 32 percent of human-caused methane emissions. So, I guess you could say that attending the global climate negotiations and seeing the lack of focus on industrial animal agriculture, was an “aha” moment in the sense that it woke me up to the oversight of this issue.

In your report, you mention that factory farming is “often overlooked in broader analyses of economic inequality, environmental racism, and climate-related injustices in the US.” Why do you think this is? How can we bring factory farming into these broader analyses?

I have a lot of theories as to why this industry has been so systematically overlooked. For one, food in general is just a deeply cultural, personal thing. People don’t want to feel ashamed about their food choices, and they certainly don’t want to be told that the traditional meals they were raised on are directly contributing to the climate crisis. There are religious components, there are familiar connections, and so food in general is just a difficult thing to have a conversation about.

At the same time, the meat and dairy industries have also been highly effective at capturing so many aspects of society and convincing us to think we need to eat animal products to be healthy. I grew up vegetarian and was regularly told by my doctors that I wasn’t going to get the nutrients I needed to be strong and healthy on a plant-based diet, and obviously we know that’s not true. But it’s important to recognize that everything from the food pyramid to Got Milk marketing campaigns is part of industrial animal agriculture’s deliberate campaign to convince us we need them. We don’t, and in fact, we are much better off without them.

Activists are in the relatively early days of shining light on this, and we need to continue to raise awareness about lobbying power the Barnyard has in order for real political reform to even be on the table. I’d love for us to hear as much about Big Meat and Big Dairy as we do about Big Oil. And I’d love for people to recognize the carbon footprint of their meals and know how much this industry contributes to the exploitation of workers and the surrounding communities. We need to get there, and I wrote this report because I really believe one of the most important things the climate movement needs to do is address factory farming at a large scale.

Here at THL, we place a special focus on the abuse of chickens in the factory farming system, as they are often the most abused but the least discussed. When some climate-conscious consumers hear about the environmental concerns around raising cows and pigs for food, they opt to eat more chicken in its place—did you find any sustainability issues in the chicken farming industry?

Absolutely. One of the most frustrating phenomena is this transition from cow and pig consumption to increased chicken consumption. I can’t tell you how many people tell me, “Oh, I don’t eat red meat, I know how bad that is for the environment” but what they’ve done instead is just double their chicken consumption. I included a note in my report about the myth of climate-friendly chicken because I really do think most people are unaware that this red meat to white meat transition is not a great way to reduce their carbon footprint.

Chickens are responsible for consuming about a third of the world’s cropland. They are an enormous feed crop consumer, and when we compare the environmental impacts of different protein options, chicken is a terrible option. Per serving, their GHG emissions are 11 times that of beans. Raising chickens is just not an efficient process, and I’m highly concerned about the fact that we’re seeing chicken production and consumption rise so much in recent years. Oh, and there’s also the environmental problem associated with chicken feces. Chickens’ poop is usually spread on nearby cropland as fertilizer, but because there is such an absurd amount of it, it runs off into streams and rivers, causing algae blooms that deplete water in the oxygen and a whole bunch of other ecosystem issues. It’s just not a sustainable solution, and I’m really glad that we’re beginning to talk about it.

The way our food system harms non-human animals is pretty straightforward for most people to understand—there’s no shortage of footage of and stories about horrific animal abuse. However, there’s less discussion of how our food system impacts humans, too. Are there any especially overlooked or lesser-known harms that factory farming inflicts on people, their families, or their communities?

As I was going through the process of researching and drafting this report, I found the emotional and physical conditions that workers endured to be absolutely devastating. I spoke to lots of people who worked in slaughterhouses and meat processing facilities, and several shared they were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from being around so much violence and suffering and gore for such extended periods of time. It makes sense when you think about it–these individuals are essentially “a part of a killing machine,” as one worker described it. What’s really important to note is that overwhelmingly, factory farm workers are some of the most vulnerable people in society. Only a third of factory farm workers are US citizens, and nearly half do not have legal authorization to work in the country. This is a population that faces significant barriers to reporting workplace violations, and companies like Tyson and Perdue know this and exploit it. A lot of times, workers are hardly making ends meet, while breathing in toxic fumes, working long hours, and suffering from repetitive stress injuries, and in some tragic cases, amputations. No one wants to think about where their meat comes from, or more importantly, at whose expense, but this is the harsh reality, and it’s massively overlooked. I didn’t expect this part of the report research process to be as painful as it ended up being, but it’s so important that we include, and actually center, workers in these conversations.

Like its namesake, the Green New Deal, the proposal for a Green New Meal is built on a sort of “Just Transition” framework—the idea that no one has to get left behind as we transform our food system for a better, more sustainable future. What do you think is important for making a Just Transition into a future food system? Have you seen any of these ideas in action?

Given how much factory farm workers are suffering at the hands of this oppressive system, the Just Transition framework is the perfect way to think about how to shift away from industrial animal agriculture and toward a food system that is much more regenerative and plant-based. We need to be intentional in our framing of these issues–factory farmer workers are victims of this terrible system and need to be supported in a transition away from it.

I’m a huge fan of the Transfarmation Project, which supports livestock farmers in their transition toward plant-based agriculture. The stories that have come out of that project have been incredibly inspiring; you have farmers switching to oats and hemp production and reaping enormous economic and environmental benefits, and private companies, like Miyoko’s Creamery and Oatly, have been supporting these transition projects, which is really exciting to see.

We’re going to need a ton of governmental funding for these transitions to happen on a large scale. I’m really excited by Senator Cory Booker’s proposed Farm System Reform Act, which creates a $100 billion fund to help farmers who run CAFOs transition to other agricultural operations. This is exactly the kind of big-picture thinking we need. Solutions that center workers are going to be a lot more politically strategic, and beyond that, they are the ethical way to get out of this mess. I don’t think a lot of people wake up and decide they want to mass slaughter animals for a living. So, it’s about putting dollars into transitional and job retraining programs, and creating new job opportunities in plant-based industries that are accessible and equitable.

In the report, you point out that making a more sustainable food system takes more than individual diet change—it takes sweeping, systemic reforms. When to a Green New Meal, what are some ways individuals can get involved and take action? Are there any groups people can plug into?

Yes! I really want to reiterate that-my intention is never to shame individual dietary decisions, especially because there are such severe food access issues that disproportionately impact communities of color and lower-income communities. There are systemic barriers in place that make plant-based eating much more difficult than it should be. Fortunately, there are lots of incredible organizations working to combat food racism and the oppressions baked into our food industry.

For high school or college students, I absolutely recommend applying to join the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition Advocacy Institute. I participated in this program when I was in college, and it really prepared me for a career combating factory farming. It’s really just such an awesome organization, I can’t recommend it enough. The Food Empowerment Project is another great resource to check out, another great organization doing intersectional work.

The other thing is–the movement against factory farms needs to build political power, just like any other, and to an extent, we’ve shied away from that to date. We need to show elected officials that the masses want the government to get involved, because we’ve mostly been targeting individual consumers and institutions. So, if you have money to donate, I really encourage you to support candidates who are running on an anti-factory farming platform (there are more of these individuals every year!). Write to your elected officials, testify against labeling bills that prohibit common-sense food labeling, tell the Member of Congress that represents you how excited you are about the Farm System Reform Act. I really want to encourage people to look beyond their individual food choices and think about the type of systemic change needed to address. And I’m always happy to talk further about this, so feel free to email me or message me on LinkedIn.

What gives you hope for the future of our food system?

Honestly, so much. I’m feeling very hopeful. I know that’s a cliché answer, but in the last couple of years, I’ve seen a lot of the problems I outline in this report, and in this interview, begin to be addressed. I’ve heard from a bunch of environmental organizations who are just starting to discuss the climate impacts of factory farming and incorporate it into their strategic planning, and at the same time, I’ve also seen the farmed animal movement begin to acknowledge the intersecting systems of oppression associated with factory farming and work with a ton of diverse stakeholders. Both of these things are so important if we are going to build a broad-tent coalition to combat this industry.

Something else I’m really excited about is the rapid growth of the alternative protein industry. Alternative protein sales are rising at a really fast pace, and it’s making it so easy for people to try plant-based options without compromising on their favorite foods. I’m also excited by the progress of cultivated meat – the meat grown from animal stem cells, outside of an animal's body. Cultivated meat has the potential to create meat that is identical to conventionally produced meat, but with a fraction of the carbon footprint (and none of the environmental justice and workers’ issues I outline in this report). I’m closely following developments in this space, because I think cultivated meat has the potential to be an absolute game changer. Singapore became the first country in the world to approve cultivated meat in December, so that was a huge step in the right direction. The Good Food Institute is a great organization to plug into if you’re interested in learning more about this side of things.

We still have a really long way to go, and lots of terrible news all the time in this space. But I do think the tides are beginning to turn, and eating plant-based no longer feels like a radical concept. I’m really grateful for all of the activists and researchers and organizers that came before me because I know how much more difficult of a conversation this used to be. And I feel empowered that I’m in position to talk about these issues with policymakers and shine light on the many injustices associated with factory farming. I hope the report provides others with the necessary context to do the same!

At the end of the day, the dream is a world without factory farms. This world is a more compassionate one, it is a cleaner one, it is better for our individual health, for our local environment, for our workers and our animals. A world without factory farms is a win for pretty much everyone, minus a few of the richest and most corrupt people at the top. So, for that reason, I think we will win.

Check out more of Noa Dalzell’s work on ClimateXChange, and connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter for more updates.