Geophysics and nutritional science: toward a novel, unified paradigm.
This article discusses a few basic geophysical processes, which collectively indicate that several nutritionally adverse elements of current Western diets also yield environmentally harmful food consumption patterns. We address oceanic dead zones, which are at the confluence of oceanography, aquatic chemistry, and agronomy and which are a clear environmental problem, and agriculture's effects on the surface heat budget. These exemplify the unknown, complex, and sometimes unexpected large-scale environmental effects of agriculture. We delineate the significant alignment in purpose between nutritional and environmental sciences. We identify red meat, and to a lesser extent the broader animal-based portion of the diet, as having the greatest environmental effect, with clear nutritional parallels.
Department of Physics, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA. geshel@bard.edu
Gidon
G
Eshel
Pamela A
PA
Martin
D000818:Animals; D019049:Developed Countries; D004032:Diet; D004787:Environmental Pollution; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005844:Geology / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D008460:Meat; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000639:trends*; D010825:Physics / Q000639:trends