And yet few have made the connection between the food system and the warming, especially relying on animals to inefficiently feed ourselves.

We also need to optimize the language we use to cover climate change.

potentialenergycoalition.org/fixingclimat...

Full post with top actions for policymakers: www.linkedin.com/posts/iffs-e...

See our LinkedIn or Instagram post for the sources and methodology note.

www.linkedin.com/posts/iffs-e...

The takeaway: the gap is built, not chosen. Closing it takes change on both supply and demand.

Getting this right could prevent up to 15M premature deaths a year and cut food-system emissions by more than half.

On one plate (Canada): 3x the red meat, 2x the dairy, a fifth of the legumes.

And the big shift to chicken has a catch: lower carbon, but more confined animals and rising risks of antibiotic resistance and pandemics (90%+ of chickens are intensively farmed)

Now the "eat more" side, and it's bleak nearly everywhere:

Legumes: all 12 countries fall short, the biggest protein gap in the data.

Whole grains: only Ethiopia eats enough.

Vegetables: only China.

Dairy: high-income countries run about double the target. The low numbers across much of Asia and Africa reflect biology and culture (most adults can't fully digest milk), not a gap to close.

Red meat first. 10 of 12 countries eat more than the Planetary Diet limit, some 5x over.

China tops it, but that's a pork story: EAT-Lancet counts pork as red meat, and these are unprocessed-meat figures. Fresh pork dominates China's intake.

Two things show up almost everywhere:
🚨 Too much red meat and dairy wherever people can afford it.
🌱 Far too few plants, legumes, and whole grains almost everywhere.

This isn't just about individual choice. It's an infrastructure problem.

How food industry funding shapes nutrition science has barely been studied. What exists shows severe distortion.

In 44 beef and heart disease trials, for example, zero industry-funded studies found unfavorable results, and zero independent studies found favorable ones (López-Moreno et al. 2025).

14. The digest also includes headlines on news across markets, industry and health and nutrition. iffs.earth/wp-content/u...

13. Sixty-five companies are quietly blending plant protein into conventional meat products, reducing beef content by 30-50% while cutting costs and maintaining consumer satisfaction.

Food System Innovations (Industry report) static1.squarespace.com/static/673fa...

12. Food causes 17% of household emissions in San Mateo County (CA) but appears in only 3 of 19 Climate Action Plans - staff simply don't know where to start. This report's progression model is worth replicating.

Sustainable San Mateo County Indicators Report sustainablesanmateo.org/home/indicat...