Food, Health and Climate

By favoring mostly plant-based foods, we can actually save the world - and live longer, healthier lives.

A shift to mostly plant-based diets and new food technologies could solve our most important and pressing global problems. Issues like climate change, hunger, freshwater shortages, the Sixth Extinction, antibiotic resistance, and the threat of new pandemics might just melt away with the new food revolution.

According to official estimates, meat and other animal-based products account for around 20% of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. However, the real figure must be significantly higher. Emissions from soils of grazing lands and fields growing cattle feed have not been included in the official statistics. Methane emissions from polluted lakes, rivers, reservoirs and shallow seas are still classified as natural emissions. Besides, cattle raising and fields growing animal feed threaten to transform the whole Amazonian rainforest to semi-dry savannah. If this happens, animal agriculture will become, overwhelmingly, the main driver for global warming.

Food, Health and Climate explains why it is not possible to halt global warming without reducing meat consumption. On the other hand, if we manage to shift to more sustainable eating habits, billions of hectares of land will be freed from animal farming and could be used to grow new conservation and carbon-sink forests, or to produce raw materials for new wood- and biomass-based products that could replace metals, concrete, plastics, and chemicals.

Risto Isomäki is a Finnish science fiction and science writer and a leading expert on environmental issues. His books have been published in more than twenty Asian and European languages.

"The fiction and non-fiction books written by Risto Isomäki are searching for an equal in the world in their scope and visionarity." - Professor Heikki Hiilamo, University of Helsinki

"I recommend this book for you, who are concerned about climate change; for you, who don't believe in climate change at all; for you, who have health concerns related to food; for you, who feel anxious about climate and food issues; and for you, who are looking for motivation to switch to a more plant-based diet." - Nörttitytöt blog

"Where political discussions on climate issues are often plagued by black-and-white thinking and quick conclusions based on flimsy arguments, Isomäki's opinions are backed by numerous studies." - Kirjavinkit blog