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