Giving Compass' Take:

• Despite advice from scientists saying to replace beef with chicken if you're worried about climate change, it might not actually be that helpful.

• The poultry industry still has harmful impacts on the environment, local communities, and other animal species. Cutting out chicken in addition to beef might be the answer.

• Learn why these plant-based foods are more than just a fad.

“If you’re worried about climate change, drop beef from your diet and replace it with chicken.” That’s the advice we’ve been hearing from some environmentalists and scientists for years — but it’s only half right. Sure, dropping beef is good for the climate. But if you really want to do what’s best for the Earth, it’s time to drop the chicken, too.

And we’ve listened: While beef consumption has steadily declined in the United States since the 1960s, chicken consumption has skyrocketed — from 28 pounds per person in 1960 to nearly 94 pounds per person in 2018.

This switch and the relentless favorable comparisons of chicken over beef have had an unfortunate side effect: they’ve ended up obscuring the poultry industry’s many serious problems. Without question, when it comes to meat, the beef industry is still the largest contributor to climate change. But the chicken industry is pretty bad, too. Its impact on the climate only looks benign when compared with beef’s. Greenhouse gas emissions per serving of poultry are 11 times higher than those for one serving of beans, so swapping beef with chicken is akin to swapping a Hummer with a Ford F-150, not a Prius.

These chicken farms profoundly harm local communities. Drive through any rural area in my home state of Georgia, the country’s top chicken-producing state, and you’ll see row after row of long, windowless sheds, each containing tens of thousands of chickens being raised for meat. Nearby, you might see (and smell) enormous mounds of what the industry calls poultry “litter,” a term that downplays its menace: It is a mix of chicken poop, spilled feed, feathers, and bedding material. These feces-dominated mountains dot the landscape in many rural parts of America, and they’re a growing problem for nearby residents — and all who live downstream.

Read the full article about the truth of switching from beef to chicken by Leah Garcés at Vox.