Why Eliminating Meat From Our Diet Isn’t The Solution To Climate Change with Anya Fernald

Why Eliminating Meat From Our Diet Isn’t The Solution To Climate Change | This episode is brought to you by BiOptimizers, Thrive Market, and BLUBlox

Human health is dependent on planetary health. A healthy planet coincides with healthy animals; when we look at the way public health and our climate have changed with the industrialization of agriculture, animals are a key focus. We often hear the argument that in order to solve climate change we need to stop eating meat. What these people aren’t realizing is that animal agriculture done right is actually part of the solution. That is a big stipulation because the methods used to raise meat can make or break our climate crisis and our health. 

I’m thrilled to sit down today with Anya Fernald to discuss the ins and outs of regenerative farming and animal practices. Anya Fernald is the co-founder and CEO of Belcampo. Belcampo operates 27,000 acres of organic farmland in California and processes its own livestock for sale in its own butcher shops and restaurants. Anya has two decades of leadership and entrepreneurship experience in high-quality, organic and premium foods. Given her expertise on meat and leadership within the meat industry, Anya has been profiled in The New Yorker and The New York Times, and has served as a regular judge on Iron Chef America on The Food Network since 2009. She has been recognized as one of Inc. Magazine’s 100 Female Founders, one of the 40 under 40 by Food & Wine, and was named a Nifty Fifty by The New York Times.

This episode is brought to you by BiOptimizers, Thrive Market, and BLUBlox.

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Here are more of the details from our interview: 

• Anya’s childhood love of cooking, her early career in the culinary world, and experiences working in Europe (8:19)

• Anya’s transition away from vegetarianism (12:16)

• The value of low and slow animal farming (15:44)

• How beef came to be villainized and why it isn’t the enemy (21:05)

• Animal wellness and its connection to human wellness (30:38)

• Why animal agriculture is needed to restore our ecosystems (36:25)

• Is a regenerative burger better or worse for the climate than an Impossible burger? (42:44)

• Why over a third of meat is thrown away in the United States (44:34)

• Scaling regenerative agriculture (49:09)

• The top policy recommendations Anya would make to improve agriculture (1:01:25)

For a limited time, Belcampo is offering Doctor’s Farmacy listeners a 20% discount for new customers using the code FARMACY20 at belcampo.com (exclusions do apply).

Follow Belcampo on Facebook @belcampomeatco, on Instagram @belcampomeatco, and on Twitter @BelcampoMeat.

Follow Anya on Facebook @anyaf, on Instagram @anyafernald, and on Twitter @anyafernald.