What we eat is an emotive subject; it is part of who we are and is woven into our memories and cultures. But scientists are telling us that our food system is broken and that even if we stopped using fossil fuels immediately, without significantly reducing meat and dairy consumption we would still be facing catastrophic levels of global warming beyond 1.5 degrees. Meat and dairy production is the biggest driver of global deforestation and contributes around 19% of greenhouse gas emissions. It’s also incredibly wasteful; 83% of global farmland is used for livestock and their food crops but the meat and dairy produced only accounts for 18% of the calories consumed by humans. There is still hope however – by reducing our intake of meat and dairy, and using better land management practices, we can tackle climate change, feed more people and free up vast amounts of land to restore to nature. 

The benefits of a plant-based diet

Better for the planet 

Livestock production produces more greenhouse gases than the global transportation sector. There are now a staggering 1.5 billion cows worldwide and their natural digestion and manure produces huge amounts of methane, another powerful greenhouse gas (over a 20-year period, it is 80 times more potent at warming than carbon dioxide). Furthermore, most of the world’s agricultural land is covered in ecologically damaging monoculture crops which are grown to feed livestock. These are typically sprayed with vast amounts of pesticides which release nitrous oxide (300 times more harmful than carbon dioxide). 

Better for biodiversity

Approximately 13 billion hectares of forest is cleared each year for agricultural purposes and meat and dairy farming are now the main cause of deforestation globally (contributing to the release of more carbon and greater climate warming). Livestock production is now the biggest human contributor to species decline and has led to an over 60% decline in species populations since 1970. 96% of all mammals on the earth are humans or the animals they eat (60% livestock, 36% humans) and just 4% of mammals are wild animals. 70% of all the birds on earth are farmed poultry (and their diseases are spreading to and killing wild birds). The destruction of wild habitat for farming, logging and development has resulted in the start of what many scientists consider to be the sixth mass extinction of life to occur in our planet’s 4 billion year history. 

Fairer to the poor

Growing animals for meat and dairy is an extremely inefficient way to feed people. A cow kept for beef can consume up to 17kg of good quality vegetable protein to produce just 1kg of animal protein. A staggering three-quarters of the world’s agricultural land is used to provide grazing and fodder crops for farmed animals and 40% of the world’s grain harvest feeds farmed animals instead of the 800 million people going hungry every day. Around 4 billion humans could live off the food currently being fed to farmed animals.

Better for your health

A plant-based diet has been proven to reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes and can lower blood pressure and cholesterol and promote a healthy body weight.

More compassionate

Most of the 1.2 billion land animals killed in the UK for food each year are raised in cramped and dirty factory farms and endure inhumane treatment before finally being slaughtered.

Conclusion

Recent years have seen a growing awareness of the need to protect our planet and slowly but surely a rising awareness of the part played by our diets. Global organisations and experts in their different fields (including Chatham House, the IPCC and Oxford University) have reached the same conclusion – eating meat, dairy, eggs and fish has a severely negative global impact and we need to transition towards a plant-based diet if we are to tackle climate change, species decline, habitat loss and feed a growing population. Joseph Poore, climate researcher at the University of Oxford, has said “Going vegan is the single biggest thing you can do to reduce your impact on Planet Earth”.