The meat industry is a major cause of climate change. We can’t afford any more emissions, but are stuck with corrupt governments and banks that only think of their own survival. Its a real connundrum of epic proportions. How to cut down intensive animal farming in spite of what banks want, in spite of the large cashflow security it represents for them. The fight is on in Holland right now, which has been a corrupt dumping ground for pesticides mega farms, toxic steel plants and other nonsense so much the country is almost as polluted as baltic states once where..
My proposal : Cap and trade farm animals. I make an exception for the highly efficient chicken, the animal that per calorie plant protein etc. supplied makes quite a lot of calories of meat protein. Eventually intensive chicken farms which are a notorious ammonia pollution source will also have to go.
So a cap and trade on the nr. of cows, sheep, pigs per country, where the nr. is gradually reduced to reach 20% of current nrs. in 2028 or so. Its a drop in the bucket, but this may be a way.
If a farmer cuts his animal count its not at a loss, he/she sells the meat or whatever. Then he’she has a choice, to own a credit or grow a new animal. This is not as simple as mathematics of course. There’s cost and risk involved, so either he/she does that or sells his credit to another farmer that is growing new animals. At the same time credits expire, so the new generation of animals has to be smaller anyway.
The farmer will not lose in this proces (but the bank will seel less profit, which is the main reason we continue this madness, for those people in suits that do absolutely nothing). A farmer can chose to sell out completely, in that case the government can buy his credits (over a couple of years) and thus cut emissions right there. Hasn’t this worked with Ammonia already. Isn’t this exactly the problem we are trying to solve?