Would veganism help save the planet? Fact-checking the diet’s environmental benefits Farming livestock emits more greenhouse gases than growing vegetable proteins

Would veganism help save the planet? The short answer is yes.

Turning away from meat and dairy products is one of the most effective and easiest ways we as individuals can reduce our carbon footprint.

According to a recently released UN report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world is off track to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. If they climb, some islands, creatures and plants will struggle to survive, sea levels will rise and some coral reefs will be lost. An increase to 2 degrees will lead to even worse consequences.

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Countries are being urged to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, which cause global warming, to protect those most vulnerable to climate change.

The report makes clear that a global effort to use renewable resources rather than fossil fuels and to make industry cleaner is needed. But other analyses have shown that our diets could also make a difference.

A study in the journal Nature has concluded that if the world turned to a mainly plant-based – or “flexitarian” diet which has a small amount of animal products – greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture would halve.

So although out hankering for burgers and cheese is not the only factor contributing to Earth’s deterioration, dramatically changing what we eat would still have huge impact on climate change.

Why are meat and dairy bad for the planet?

Rearing animals for meat and dairy production has a monumental impact on the environment. Energy and resources are used at every stage: changing land and growing crops for livestock, maintaining the animals, processing the meat, packaging it and then selling it.

Resources

Vegan advocates consider meat and dairy eating an inefficient use of the world’s resources because what animals consume far outweighs what they produce.

“For every 100 calories we feed to animals, we only receive 12 calories back in the form of their meat or milk, while a vegan diet can cut your food-related carbon footprint by up to 50 per cent,” says Dominika Piasecka of the Vegan Society.

“It’s far more environmentally-friendly to eat crops directly rather than feed them to animals whom we then eat.”

Water

Livestock uses up large amounts of freshwater, which is a particular concern in areas where water scarcity is an issue.

Greenhouse gases

Farming livestock emits more greenhouse gases than growing vegetable proteins. The very existence of some animals produces methane, while producing feed for them in turn produces nitrous oxide. More greenhouse gases are emitted when preparing land for livestock.

“The lowest impact beef still creates six times more greenhouse gases and uses 36 times more land than peas and beans,” says Joseph Poore, who works for the University of Oxford. He recently spearheaded research into reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers.

“Global adoption of plant-based diets would reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 6.6 billion tonnes [a year],” he adds.

Deforestation

Across the world, meat and dairy production takes up 3.1 billion hectares, meaning vast swathes of land are deforested. “That amount of land is the size of the whole of Africa. It’s the same as the US, the European Union, Australia and China combined,” explains Poore, who studied five diets before concluding that veganism would be most beneficial for the environment.

While this has many, obvious consequences for creatures, it also means the trees that once stood in the forest are no longer around to store carbon dioxide – a greenhouse gas – from the atmosphere.

Poore tells i: “Since 2000 we have lost huge areas of tropical forest – an area the size of the UK plus Germany plus France, plus Spain, plus Portugal. A lot of that has been driven by agriculture.

“The 3.1 billion hectares of farmland we no longer need [after turning to veganism] would store a lot of carbon – that would take 5.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere a year.”

Poore says that veganism could lead to a 23 per cent reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions. “[It] is a hugely powerful way to cut greenhouse gas emissions,” he adds.

If meat and dairy consumption came to an end, global farmland would reduce by three-quarters – and still manage to feed the world, according to his recent analysis.

Pollution

There is also the issue of pollution. Poore says veganism would reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous – from livestock waste – in the atmosphere by “about 50 per cent”.

“In the Gulf of Mexico, there is a 9,000 square mile area of sea that is effectively dead. From the Mississippi River, nitrogen from fertiliser and animal manure has gone down into the sea. It has been used by bacteria and algae, which have [soaked up] all the oxygen in the sea. Other life can’t exist. It’s like deforesting the ocean.”

There is a similar type of “dead zone” around the UK, he adds.

Could it get worse?

If we continue at the rate we’re consuming meat and dairy around the world, yes. Meat consumption is rising rapidly around the world, largely because of increasing populations and income growth. The expanding middle classes in some developing countries, who previously couldn’t afford it, are developing a taste for meat.

For others, meat can be cheaper to purchase than plant-based alternatives.

“By 2050 we’re going to be consuming 500 billion kg of meat a year and 1.1-1.3 trillion litres of milk – a 60 per cent increase on today. That’s going to place an incredible burden on the planet. We’re going to have to clear more land to produce all that extra food. This will probably emit more greenhouse gases,” says Poore.

So veganism could help save the planet?

“Without a doubt it could help. It’s probably the single biggest way to reduce our impact compared to our other options. As a typical consumer, relative to the choices you have, avoiding meat and dairy is the most powerful thing you can do for the environment,” says Poore.

Vegan advocates certainly think so, too. “With the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warning this week that urgent changes are needed to keep global warming to a minimum, going vegan is the least we can do to help save the planet,” says the Vegan Society.

Is veganism the only way to save the planet?

Of course agriculture is only one contributor of greenhouse gas emissions.

Reducing the consumption of animal products would help to meet reduction targets but there needs to be a global effort for change in other areas.

Poore says: “Fossil fuels still [contribute] 61 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Tackling fossil fuel use is crucial. But agriculture is also a powerful way to target greenhouse gas emissions.”

The UN’s report said in order to keep temperatures from rising to more than 1.5 degrees in the long term, countries need to cut carbon emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 and to net zero by 2050.

Renewables would have to supply 70 to 85 per cent of electricity in 2050 and there would be a small role for gas power with technology that captured and stored its carbon. Coal would be virtually non-existent, it said.