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Michael Grunwald

What Michael Grunwald thinks about climate change

@michael-grunwald · 17 positions · 0 changes of mind

Journalist and New York Times contributing writer, author of We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate. Argues that land, not energy, is the hard part of the climate problem, and that the world has to grow much more food on much less land.

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7 dated positions, 2023 to 2025, in their own words. Our reading of what Michael Grunwald has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingGrass-fed organic beef is worse for the climate and the planet than beef finished in a feedlot.

    Their wordsWe need better beef - which means more efficient beef, not organic grass-fed beef, which is even worse for the climate and the planet than conventional feedlot-finished beef - but in the rich world we also need to eat less beef.

    ↗WE ARE EATING THE EARTHmichaelgrunwald.substack.com

  2. 2 months earlier

  3. Our readingThe two individual changes that matter most for the climate are eating less beef and wasting less food, and both are proving extremely hard to make.

    Their wordsUnfortunately, making those simple changes is infuriatingly difficult. Global meat consumption keeps rising every year. The world still wastes at least one fourth of its food.

    ↗It's Hard to Change Our Behaviorsmichaelgrunwald.substack.com

  4. 20 months earlier

  5. Our readingSynthetic fertiliser is a serious climate and pollution problem and also the reason half the people alive are alive.

    Their wordsThey suck! But they also feed the world. Half the people alive today would be very not alive if fertilizers manufactured from natural gas weren’t super-sizing our harvests.

    ↗Farming Needs to Suck Lessmichaelgrunwald.substack.com 1st of 2 in this piece

  7. Our readingFixing food and climate needs solutions that scale absurdly fast, and the ones we have do not scale nearly fast enough yet.

    Their wordsthe solutions to our food and climate problems need to scale up absurdly quickly.

    ↗Farming Needs to Suck Lessmichaelgrunwald.substack.com 2nd of 2 in this piece

  8. 3 months earlier

  9. Our readingBiofuels have probably raised greenhouse gas emissions rather than lowered them, once the land they take is counted.

    Their wordsBut I think it’s important to tell the whole story, so I have a new piece in the New York Times pointing out that biofuels are also a catastrophe for the climate and the environment.

    ↗A Climate Killer Disguised as a Climate Solutionmichaelgrunwald.substack.com 2nd of 5 in this piece

  10. 5 months earlier

  11. Our readingFeeding humanity without wrecking the climate will take engineered food, and squeamishness about technology in food is the thing to get over.

    Their wordsMy column is about how we’re going to need plant-based meat, cultivated meat, and all kinds of futuristic genetic engineering to grow enough food to feed humanity without frying the planet.

    ↗Get Over Your All-Natural Selfmichaelgrunwald.substack.com 1st of 2 in this piece

  13. Our readingChanging what food is made of will work better than changing people's minds about what to eat.

    Their wordsThe food and climate stuff I write about would be simple if everyone just went vegan, but it turns out to be hard to change hearts and minds, so we’re going to have to change our food.

    ↗Get Over Your All-Natural Selfmichaelgrunwald.substack.com 2nd of 2 in this piece