Name: The hidden forces behind your food choices
Uploaded: 2024-10-04T14:52:14Z
Duration: 8 min 35 s
Description: What we eat is less about what we choose and more about what’s offered to us, says food and climate expert Sarah Lake. Unpacking how governments and companies have driven up meat consumption in the US through extensive marketing, she explains how we could employ these same forces to incentivize plant-based eating — for the sake of the planet, public health and global food security.

Sarah Lake: The hidden forces behind your food choices

The hidden forces behind your food choices

What we eat is less about what we choose and more about what’s offered to us, says food and climate expert Sarah Lake. Unpacking how governments and companies have driven up meat consumption in the US through extensive marketing, she explains how we could employ these same forces to incentivize plant-based eating — for the sake of the planet, public health and global food security.

What people eat depends less on personal choice than on what's convenient and affordable, shaped by decades of government and corporate promotion of meat. Campaigns and subsidies made meat cheap and ever-present, to the point where hospital cafeterias offered little else. Now, with meat responsible for up to 20 percent of global emissions and widespread health risks, a shift toward plant-based eating is urgent. Powerful examples from Germany and New York schools show that policy and industry changes can make plant-rich diets the easy, healthy default.