its been too long since we posted to this thread.
The NYT is behind a paywall but here are the best parts
NYC Health + Hospitals, the country’s largest municipal health system, has made plant-based food the default for inpatient meals. That means the food contains no meat, dairy or eggs. If a patient doesn’t like the first option, the second offering is also plant-based. Anyone who wants meat has to make a special request.
Now, a year after it made those sweeping changes, the hospital system has reduced its food-related carbon emissions by 36 percent,
according to the mayor’s office.
And, jokes about hospital food aside, the changes seem to be a hit with patients. Samantha Morgenstern, a client executive and registered dietitian at Sodexo, the food services company providing the meals, said that nine times out of 10, patients accepted the dishes, and that the satisfaction rate was above 90 percent.
The switch is part of
a broad push from Mayor Eric Adams, a self-described vegan who sometimes eats fish, to cut meat consumption in the city to improve health and to curb greenhouse gas emissions. About 35 percent of the city’s planet-heating emissions come from buildings, with transportation and food each accounting for roughly 20 percent. The mayor’s office has pledged to reduce the city’s food-based emissions by a third by 2030.
A
study from Oxford University, issued this summer, found that plant-based diets accounted for 75 percent less in greenhouse gas emissions than diets that include 3.5 ounces of meat a day. The world’s food system is responsible for one-third of greenhouse gasses, with
beef, lamb and cheese the most polluting.
After the hospital system switched from animal products to plant-based food, there was an initial cost savings of 59 cents per tray, and while that amount has since fluctuated, it still costs less per plate than meat, Ms. Morgenstern said.
Making plant-based meals the default has reduced food-related greenhouse gas emissions by 36 percent, the mayor’s office said. Just don’t say “vegan.”
www.nytimes.com