Many vegetarians have long held the view that going meat free is a better ethical and health decision. Now there is growing evidence that reducing our meat consumption will also lead to a healthier planet.

Just this month the respected Chatham House institute in the UK released a report that says meat consumption around the world cannot be ignored by policy makers when it comes to climate change. And with Australians some of the highest consumers of red meat, many experts believe the time has come for us to re-evaluate our eating habits.

Donal Murphy-Bokern is an independent scientist based in Germany who has researched the environmental impact meat consumption has had in Europe in particular. He said since World War Two meat consumption has grown exponentially as consumers have become more wealthy and livestock production more advanced. The peak period for consumption was the 60s and 70s. Although consumption in Europe has plateaued a little, many people in the developed world are still eating far more meat and dairy than the recommended daily intake set by health experts, a fact that is contributing to nitrogen and greenhouse gas emissions.

'The common health guidelines is that we should be limiting our red meat consumption to 65 grams per day but many are eating far more than that,' he says.

Australians, Murphy-Bokern says, on average eat 50 per cent more red meat than their European counterparts.

In Australia, Meat Free Week was launched in 2013 in an effort to get consumers to reduce their meat consumption, including white meat and fish. Co-founder Melissa Hobbs says the group is not anti-meat and is not encouraging vegetarianism but believes consumers should think about how much meat they consume for ethical, health and environmental reasons.

However Professor Manny Noakes, research director with nutrition and health at the CSIRO believes the over emphasis on reducing meat consumption is misguided. She believes a far greater problem for greenhouse gas emissions is our over reliance on packaged food and food with poor nutrition.