Moving Beyond a Hamburger Default World

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senior year of high school i took an

environmental science class

for the very first time quite frankly

because i was told it was the easy

science course

and i didn’t think i was very good at

science

what i didn’t know is that i was

absolutely

going to fall in love with the topic and

i was going to realize

for the first time in my life that our

climate crisis was going to be one of

the most defining

social justice issues of our generation

and i wanted to do something about it

the problem was i wasn’t sure what to do

a few years later i read the book eating

animals which is about factory farming

or industrial animal agriculture in

america

and an idea hit me i realized that

factory farming

was at the core of so many issues

we faced as a society it was at the

nexus

of worker issues environmental racism

public health issues animal welfare and

last but not least our climate crisis

i learned that livestock emissions are

responsible for 14.5 percent

of global greenhouse gas emissions

livestock are the number one user

of our planet’s land resources and one

of the largest users of our fresh water

consumption

and then i learned this

the eat lancet commission on food planet

and health

states very clearly that yes we need to

work on global decarbonization

we need to cut our emissions in half by

2030

and achieve net zero carbon emissions by

2050

however even if we do all that and we

don’t focus on our food

we don’t shift our diets away from

factory farming and towards more

plant-based meals

we’re not going to meet the paris

climate agreement goals

what does that mean that means even if

we do everything

right that we’re supposed to do for

global decarbonization but we don’t

focus

on food we’re not going to get there

we’re still going to suffer the most

dire consequences

our climate crisis has to offer

and so i was sold i knew that i wanted

to focus

on food i knew that i wanted to shift

help people shift

their diets so i started with me i

started eating a plant-based diet

because i no longer wanted to use my

purchasing power to support an industry

that i was morally at odds with and i

decided that i wanted to help

other people with their diet changes too

because it wasn’t an easy

shift but i was working against a very

powerful social construct

i was working against a hamburger

default

world what i mean by that is this

i could close my eyes and point to any

random restaurant on a map

and i could walk in there and assume

that most likely i’m going to be able to

get a really great hamburger

or chicken nuggets or a steak but you

can’t say the same for a delicious

plant-based meal the definition

of a default is the option that’s

automatically selected for you

unless an alternative is specified a

great example of this is for those of

you that have iphones

my guess is if i called everyone at the

same time the majority of us

we’d hear the same ringtone now that

might seem like an

inconsequential example and it is but i

think it shows you how

powerful the default option is it’s not

just

one choice among many it’s the default

option a much more universally

well-known example

of default and a much more consequential

example

is organ donation in the u.s

our default option is that we are not

organ donors which means when we go and

get our license i had to check a box

sign a form in order to become an organ

donor

which is why it’s not surprising that in

america though 90 percent of adults

support organ donation

only 60 percent of us are registered

organ donors

other countries like france austria or

poland

where by default you’re an organ donor

when you turn 18 or when you get a

license so you’re automatically an organ

donor unless you sign a forum

to opt yourself out they see numbers at

almost a hundred percent

of citizens registered as organ donors

now i want to tell you a story about how

the same concept can work for food and

work really really well

there was a theology conference a few

years back in the uk

and they decided you know this wasn’t an

academic conference this was an academic

conference it wasn’t anything about

climate change

but the people organizing the event

wanted to align their food choices with

their environmental values and so they

decided that for their menu for their

registration form for the conference

they were going to make the vegetarian

option the default

this time around now the previous year

where the meat option

was the default out of the 1400

conference participants

that came 200 of them ate a vegetarian

meal

this year when the vegetarian option was

the default

over a thousand of the 1400 conference

participants

ate a vegetarian meal

in 2019 a study came out a peer-reviewed

study was published in denmark

that showed very similar and actually

more successful results

you can see here in experiment one group

one

the conference registration form had a

meet option as the default and two

percent of participants chose to opt

themselves

into that vegetarian meal right in group

two

when the vegetarian meal was the default

87 percent of people stuck

with it that is an 85 increase in the

amount of vegetarian meals served

just by simply changing an option and a

registration form

and you can see that across the board

the results stuck and approximate 80

percent

increase in the amount of vegetarian

options served

simply by changing the default at a menu

so this works right

this is really successful but i want to

take a step back and talk about what we

have chosen to accept

and the consequences we face as a result

of the current hamburger default world

we live in

the first is factory farming

we raise over 70 billion animals

globally to slaughter for human

consumption not 70 million

70 billion and that’s not even counting

fish

which are in the trillions over 99

percent

of animals in america are raised on

factory farms

and with factory farms and with animals

comes their excrement

this is a photo taken a satellite image

of a cattle feedlot

in texas and you can see this manure

lagoon

in the middle and you can see the

extreme runoff

that comes from these industries you can

only imagine

what that does to the air and water

pollution in surrounding areas

the people that live in these

surrounding areas suffer much higher

risks of diseases

and illnesses such as cancer and they

are predominantly surrounded

by communities of color and communities

in poverty

and last but definitely not least we’ve

accepted

the fact that our amazon rainforest

our planet’s lungs were literally on

fire due to deforestation

which is in large part because we needed

land for cattle

to graze

what this can make us forget is that our

food system

is not inevitable it’s actually far from

it

factory farming has been around for less

than a century

it’s been around for less than 75

years and when you think about that in

the span of human history

that’s a blip we can move forward

past this time where we all know we’re

treating workers

and animals and our planet’s resources

with extreme

disrespect what do you think future

generations are going to look back

on this and think but luckily we can

move past this and we can move

closer to menus that look a little more

like this i spend my days working with

institutions

helping them to serve more sustainable

meals

that conversation used to be a more

difficult one

i used to have to ask them to think

about cutting back

a certain percentage of animal products

reducing their animal product

consumption

it’s never fun to tell people that they

should have less of anything

right when i was able to shift that

conversation

to asking them to shift their default to

plant-based meals

and still provide freedom of choice for

any diner

preserve inclusivity for everyone

and be able to align their food choices

with their values for sustainability and

the environment

and the health of their diners

everything changed that conversation

went from frustrating

to excited it was amazing to see

and the cool thing about this is that

it’s not about individual

or systemic change right you don’t have

to pick one it’s right in the middle

you not only get to decide what you eat

three times a day

you can help your communities shift the

way

they’re serving food to let’s say you

are hosting a barbecue

next weekend for family and friends you

can say hey

we’re going to be serving these

delicious new plant-based burgers and

brats and hot dogs that i found at the

grocery store

they’re so delicious let me know if

you’d like

meat and i’ll have it for you if you’re

a student

at a university you can ask your

university department

to adopt a policy that states that from

now on

all of your future events and

conferences are going to serve

plant-based meals

by default and diners can opt in for me

in advance if they’d like

let’s say you’re an employee that works

at an

office or in a corporation and you every

friday

you bring in sandwiches you can ask your

administrator to say hey

next friday let’s serve roasted

vegetable hummus and olive tapenade

sandwiches for everyone

and ask them in advance if they’d like a

sandwich with meat

along with a question we already asked

everyone which is what dietary

restrictions do you have are you

vegetarian vegan

do you have allergies it’s the same

thing it’s just flipping the script

and last but not least if you are

hosting a conference or a wedding or an

event

for next year and your rsvp form was

going to look like this

why not change it to something that

looks a little more

like this

it’s really that simple and these simple

changes

make a big difference we need to focus

on food right

i think that’s pretty clear and most of

us are trying to

but it is difficult when our defaults in

society are being determined and

are in the hands of large animal

agriculture corporations

but i’m telling you we can take that

power back i promise you we can

it is exhausting to swim swim against

the current

in a hamburger default world i can tell

you that more than anyone

but we together can turn the tide

and empower each other to shift the

default

and to serve sustainable meals by

default

for generations to come to ensure a

climate resilient future

for everyone thank you

[Applause]

[Music]

you