Matthew Hayek (@matthewhayek) / X

Matthew Hayek

3,644 posts

Matthew Hayek

@matthewhayek

NYU Asst. Professor of Environmental Studies. Climate, animals, land use, and food systems.

Joined January 2013

Pinned
Matthew Hayek
@matthewhayek
Nov 4, 2024
New study: we found that small reductions in pasture-based beef production in some areas, especially in temperate, humid regions like the Eastern US & Europe, could lead to large amounts of CO2 removal by regrowing native forests. nyu.edu/about/news-pub…
Matthew Hayek
@matthewhayek
Jun 14, 2021
"100 companies are responsible for 71% of emissions" has become a rallying cry for why efforts to reduce one's personal emissions don't matter. But...that premise and the conclusion are both untrue.
Matthew Hayek
@matthewhayek
May 2, 2023
Have you seen recent headlines that scientists changed their mind on meat, and it's now "crucial for health"? Behind them is a big, coordinated strategy involving conflicts of interest, a biased journal, industry capture, & selective framing devices 🧵1/N
Meat is crucial for human health, scientists warn
From telegraph.co.uk
Matthew Hayek
@matthewhayek
Nov 3, 2022
“The infectious disease trap of animal agriculture” is out in Science Advances. Outbreaks of “zoonotic” diseases that spillover from animals to humans are likely to increase, unless we can reduce demand for animal-based foods. 🧵 1/ science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
Matthew Hayek
@matthewhayek
Mar 2, 2021
I did my PhD research in old growth Amazon rain forests. Each time I returned, more of it disappeared. The primary cause was clearing pastures for beef. This is why I turned all of my research attention toward food systems.
Erika Berenguer
@Erika_Berenguer
Mar 2, 2021
In March 2008 I went to the Amazon for the first time, spending four months in a place called Alta Floresta. The lack of forest shocked me - during my lifetime, Alta Floresta has lost 4991km2 of forest, an area 3 times the size of London. These are the images.
Matthew Hayek
@matthewhayek
Sep 6, 2020
This terrible meme has been making the rounds on twitter and instagram, and @Greenpeace even shared it on their channels with the caption "the problem with our food system in one picture". There are lots of problems with it
Matthew Hayek
@matthewhayek
Apr 19, 2024
The @FAO misused my research to publish findings with a pro-meat bias ⚠️ The organization has been outdoing itself to distort the impacts of dietary change on the environment 🧵
UN livestock emissions report seriously distorted our work, say experts
From theguardian.com
Matthew Hayek
@matthewhayek
Jun 14, 2021
Replying to @matthewhayek
That wasn't the finding of the Carbon Majors report. What they found was that 100 companies produce 71% of *industrial carbon emissions*, mostly from fossil sources. But that leaves out gigatons of *non-industrial* GHG emissions.
Matthew Hayek
@matthewhayek
Jan 20, 2020
No @TIME, indoor agriculture will not feed the world. It will provide salad greens and herbs for rich people. It's physically incapable of doing anything more than that, when compared with outdoor fields or passive solar greenhouses time.com/collection/dav…
Matthew Hayek
@matthewhayek
Nov 18, 2021
What's the best protein for the planet? Beans, duh. But lots of people still don't know how to make them taste great. So plant-based meat is a 2nd best mass-marketable option. And we know it's still way lower-impact than conventional meat. Here's why 🧵
Yes, plant-based meat is better for the planet
From vox.com
Matthew Hayek
@matthewhayek
Jun 14, 2021
Replying to @matthewhayek
A 2020 study in Science found that even if we reduced industrial/energy emissions to near-zero by 2050, business as usual growth in food system emissions will still exceed 1.5 or 2°C, thanks largely to growth in meat & dairy production & consumption. science.sciencemag.org/content/370/65…
Matthew Hayek
@matthewhayek
Apr 12, 2023
Don't fall for leather's sustainability pleas. It's *not* a byproduct. It's a co-product. Farm sales & profits go up & down w/ the price of hides. Brazilian deforestation has been tied directly to leather sales in USA, a market that it barely sells beef to statista.com/statistics/103…
Amanda Mull
@amandamull
Apr 11, 2023
Replying to @amandamull
Leather is a really hard problem: It's terrible for animals and the planet. It's also largely a byproduct of meat production, and it is an ideal material for long-term repair and reuse. Most fake leather looks and feels fake, so people don't want it. theatlantic.com/technology/arc…
Matthew Hayek
@matthewhayek
Oct 28, 2021
UK and US foodies: stop writing this same article over and over
Giving up meat won't make us greener
From spectator.com
Matthew Hayek
@matthewhayek
Apr 28, 2022
They misspelled "the meat industry"
Inside Climate News
@insideclimate
Apr 28, 2022
The world is on track to destroy or degrade an area of land the size of South America by 2050, says a new report from @UNCCD. That has huge implications for the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. bit.ly/3kkDfGx