What would happen if everyone stopped eating meat tomorrow? - Carolyn Beans

Explore the possibilities and challenges of what a vegetarian world could look like if we all immediately stopped eating meat.

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Imagine if a wizard of meatless dining suddenly appeared on Earth and with one wave of a wand wiped away all meat from our shelves— along with any desire to eat it. Farm animals destined for food vanish, whisked away to another planet. What happens in the following days, years, and even millennia? Carolyn Beans explores what a vegetarian world could look like.

Lesson by Carolyn Beans, directed by Mitchelle Tamariz.

This video made possible in collaboration with Speed & Scale

A special thanks to Marco Springmann who provided information and insights for the development of this video.

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[Roy-G-Biv]

i would like to see a TED-ED on What would happen if everyone stopped believing and practicing religion.

[lestranged]

Do another video of what happens if everyone just cut down on the amount of meat they eat by like 50%. Or even less, even cut by 25%. Because many people will say "I couldn't give it up forever" ( even in the comments here, many are saying it) but they don't realize that even cutting down would make a huge difference if large numbers of people did it. Millions of people going meatless one day a week would improve the environment more than a small number of people being perfect vegans all the time.

[HamzaJatte]

Now make an episode about what would happen if rich people stopped using their private jets to go shopping.

[ryomensukunajapan]

This topic literally appeared in my passage 2 IELTS test 💀

[jdeesee]

I like how she glossed over massive starvation.

[JamesTAbernathy]

As a vegan, I think someone named Carolyn Beans would predisposed to support a plant-based diet 😂

[justinblin]

While I think the general idea may be correct, I feel like this is a more complex issue that can’t be comprehensively covered in a 5 minute video, which leads to generalizations and oversimplifications that are incorrect.

[RishabhSharma]

Don't we need vitamin B12 whose source is basically meat OR multivitamin pills?

[MayDay]

The content is a little too biased, focusing on the meat problems, but not in the plant based system problematic. But the idea behind is really good and others scenarios could even bring more interesting reflections around the topic!

[Crimsonblah]

I think it’s incredibly optimistic to think that a lot of the land used for meat production could be used for farming in the same efficiency. I also suspect those farmers who breed house and care for animals could possibly become destitute given the demand and price decrease of crops. I know it’s a thought experiment and eating less meat is a good idea in many cases, but this ignores a salient fact: 12% of Americans account for 50% of beef consumption. Have the actual externalities of meat production paid for by the producers and therefore consumers and the problem gets much easier to solve.

[LegoCookieDoggie]

Okay off topic kind of would the peanut (or nut) allergy rate go up or down? With more possible biodiversity and kids going outside or the demand that nuts replace proteins.

[cliors]

Dear TED-ED team, can you include your sources please? Thanks

[Gaston-Melchiori]

vitamine B12 is only found in Animals and fongus. So we also would need to consume a lot more mushrooms or yeast.

[priyankapalit]

India traditionally has a significant vegetarian population. We also still have the burden of CVS, diabetes and the other life style diseases. Our average life expectancy is less than other meat eating nations in part due to our poor diet.
Secondly more farming would introduce more pesticides too.

[gminors]

What about the demand for, production, and use of pesticides and insecticides? How will it affect other animal populations? I might eat more chicken and less beef though.

[Celis.C]

I've cut down on some meat consumption personally, but chiefly anything related to cow meat. When I do have it, I consider it the rare treat.
Small changes (in mindset) go a long way.

[JohnHoranzy]

Malnutrition would happen. The focus should be on restoration of prairie grasslands and fixing the corporate industrial livestock industry. Grasslands are more biodiverse than forests. This video is focused on dogma rather than much deeper understanding of human biology and our ancestral diet of hunting and gathering. These people are not going to declare processed carbs, sugar and glucose to be the insulin spiking poisons they are because of the big money agrabiz. Who sponsors your research???

[vickiephelps]

How many people are expected to die of starvation in the first two years of transition in the countries like Mongolia, that do not have enough crop growing capabilities? Will the rise in costs cause other people to also starve? Given our current distribution capabilities, how much food can we move to those areas? How long will it take to build enough distribution networks to get grain and produce to every person who needs them?

Earthschool needs to add a couple of contrarians to their focus group to ask these questions. Too many like minded people at that table make for a very one sided story narrative.

[aminat]

When so much magic is required to solve a problem, it's not a solution

[ThrashRats]

Oh boy another video bashing people for the climate crisis rather than the governments, their decisions and policies.