Eat for a healthy planet
You can read entire articles on the most environmentally friendly kind of milk to drink, or which protein choices are best for the planet, and still be unclear what decisions to make in daily life. With an issue as complex as climate change, the Meta-Problem Method can help us navigate our options.
Complex problems are often vague and have many possible solutions. The Meta-Problem Method may lead you far away from the dilemma that started your quest. That’s because the method forces you to clarify what you really want and what you are willing to give up. It enables you to compare objectively the possible pathways and their trade offs. It prevents you locking into solutions mode too early and then doubling down on solving a low-yield problem that does not serve your goals as well as the alternatives. At the end of this process, you will have a better understanding of your priorities and how to achieve them.
Steps in the Meta-Problem Method
Dilemma
The high-level issue you are trying to address
Picking foods that reduce your impact.
Goal
The changes you want to make to address the dilemma. There are usually many options.
Supporting Goals
- Greater biodiversity in the world.
- Lower greenhouse gases.
Other goals could include making healthy changes to your diet, reducing indirect water consumption, tasty meals, minimizing prep time, minimizing food waste, and minimizing cost.
Problem Space
The set of problems you could chose to solve to advance your goals, plus the constraints that hold you back.
Example problems
- How can I increase biodiversity in the world through my food choices? Maybe the problem to solve is “Which food production do I want to contribute to with my choices?”
- How can I minimize my greenhouse gas contributions? Maybe the problem to solve is “What’s the smallest and most personally sustainable change I can make to have the biggest impact?”
There are many other potential problems to solve related to reducing the environmental impact of food. Each goal has many possible problems we could link to it. Are there other problems linked to these first two goals? Which options come to mind for the other goals?
High-Yield Problems
Sometimes solving one problem helps make progress towards several goals. In this step, we identify these “two-for-the-price-of-one” problems.
Which options will advance more than one goal?
- Buying from a farmer’s market can increase biodiversity, reduce greenhouse gases from transportation, be healthier, and be tastier. However, transporting the food has an environmental impact, it can take more time out of your day, and can contribute to increased food waste.
- Cutting out the worst offenders for greenhouse gases (red meat, non-local asparagus, etc.) can have a huge impact on your overall greenhouse gas contribution, be healthier, and reduce indirect water usage, without dramatically changing your costs or time spent. However, it may not improve biodiversity or support local farmers.
There are many potential solutions that will have varying effects on the set of goals. Which alternatives improve the most important goals? How might the unknown change the right path forward? What other possible solutions are there to address the dilemma?
Problem Selection
Which of the many possible options in the high-yield problem step is the best set to address the dilemma?
- Which solutions make the most sense to fight climate change?
- Which solutions will best address the dilemma?
- Which solutions will deliver the best outcome for the least amount of time, effort and money?
Implement, Learn and Adapt
Check continuously that you are still solving the best problem, as new information emerges.
Observe and learn as you go. As new information reveals itself, check continuously that you’re still solving the right problem.