Let’s cut to the chase. What would happen if, overnight, the world turned vegetarian? — A lot could happen.

Due to the sudden increase in demand, the price of vegetarian food will rise. This may be a result of either, initially, firms not being able to supply enough food to meet demand creating a shortage so prices had to be increased or because of the increase in demand and the fact that vegetarian food is price inelastic, firms will increase prices to try and make the most out of this opportunity. Whatever the reason, the price mechanism will increase the price if the aggregate demand curve shifts to the right. This increase in price will help fund expansion of the firms to produce more vegetarian food.

There may be more diseases like malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies amongst the less educated and those from lower socio-economic groups as they may not be able to afford vegetarian food, in the beginning, because of the drastic rise in its price. This will lead to an increase in government spending on welfare payments for the poor.

Farmer’s incomes will rise and countries which produce the most food (China, India, The US & Brazil according to Investopedia) will benefit the most.

Competition in the vegetarian food industry will also rise as its demand has increased. More firms will enter the market. Due to the increased competition and the workings of the market mechanism, overtime, supply may be able to meet demand and prices of food will go down to normal.

Global Mortality rate will fall; everyone will live a healthier life.

“Should everyone go vegetarian, by 2050 we would see a global mortality reduction of 6-10%, thanks to a lessening of coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke and some cancers”. (BBC)

Non-vegetarian food industry will decline and this will cause unemployment. Those who work in meat & fish processing plants, fishermen and livestock- related employees would be out of work. This will lead to social problems and crime rates may rise due to poverty as these workers are no longer employed. However, this can be avoided if they are given a career alternative to earn a living: the government could provide training for these employees so that they can work as farmers and produce vegetarian food instead (though, this would increase government spending). If this training causes an increase in supply of labour in the vegetarian food industry, wages may fall.

“A staggering 97 per cent of the world’s soya crop is fed to livestock. It would take 40 million tons of food to eliminate the most extreme cases of world hunger, yet nearly 20 times that amount of grain is fed to farmed animals every year in order to produce meat.” (Independent.co.uk)

Livestock farming may be stopped completely and the animals that were raised may be sold or abandoned. This means the demand for the food that used to be fed to these animals (such as soya & corn) will decrease. So, its price may fall. This means as soya prices fall, the poor may be able to afford it so not all vegetarian food will become expensive.

As Livestock farming stops, the animals may be put to use elsewhere (for example: in zoos & circuses). This may increase the number of zoos/circuses which will create more job opportunities. People may also start using animals like bulls and horses to travel again like they did in the past (this is very unlikely) so this may limit the usage of cars. Due to this, sales of cars may reduce as substitutes (horses/bulls) are available. Ultimately, there will be less air pollution.

So, a lot could happen if the world turned vegetarian and there is no definite answer or certainty of all the impacts of this change however I do know that, overtime, everything (food prices, unemployment & income levels etc.) will get back to normal because of the wizardry/magic/power (call it what you want) of the market mechanism.

What would happen if the world turned vegetarian, according to 8 year olds…

“I hate vegetables, most people hate vegetables. I won’t let the world turn vegan.”

“We’ll get squished because there’ll be too many animals.”

“If we don’t eat animals, they’ll eat us and we’ll all die. Also, I HATE BROCCOLI.”