Tuesday, September 17, 2019

There Always are Trade-Offs, Whether it is Edge Computing, Phone design, Human Health or Greenhouse Gases

Engineers who build communication networks and devices always are aware that design, performance and cost trade-offs must be made. Network architects know there are trade-offs for building computing networks. Marketers know price and take rates are inversely related. CEOs have to balance the rival objectives of investment, debt reduction and shareholder return; allocating resources to customers, employees, shareholders, bankers and other strakeholders.

Likewise, economists emphasize that policy decisions always involve choices, and choices have unwanted intended or unintended consequences. 

As it turns out, the same seems to be true for human nutrition and greenhouse gas reduction. 

Though plant-based diets are touted as a way of reducing greenhouse gases, there are always trade-offs. In fact, “achieving an adequate, healthy diet in most low- and middle-income countries will require a substantial increase in greenhouse gas emissions and water use due to food production,” according to new research from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Consider the trade-offs for dairy products. "Our data indicate that it is actually dairy product consumption that explains much of the differences in greenhouse gas footprints across diets,” says  Martin Bloem, Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future director. “Yet, at the same time, nutritionists recognize the important role dairy products can have in stunting prevention. The goals of lowering greenhouse gas emissions by limited dairy intake conflict directly with the benefits of dairy products for human growth. 

"There will always be tradeoffs,” he says. “Environmental impact alone cannot be a guide for what people eat.”

Most business strategy involves trade-offs of these types.

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