Many people are feeling powerless against the forces that are denying and exacerbating climate change, but peer-reviewed research overwhelmingly shows that switching to a plant-based diet has a massively smaller climate footprint, and requires far less energy and far fewer resources to produce. We can each make a meaningful difference for the planet and for animals by rejecting all animal exploitation and use. The power is in our hands, and the science is on our side. Here’s proof:
Project Drawdown researchers ranked shifting a “plant-rich diet” as #4 of “the 100 most substantive, existing solutions to address climate change.”
Source: Project Drawdown, the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming and the result of a qualified and diverse group of researchers from around the world identifying, researching, and modeling the 100 most substantive, existing solutions to address climate change.
More than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries agree that “promoting dietary shifts towards mostly plant-based foods” is among “examples of diverse and effective steps humanity can take to transition to sustainability.” Among their named causes of the “current trajectory of potentially catastrophic climate change due to rising GHGs” is “agricultural production— particularly from farming ruminants for meat consumption.”
Source: World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice published in the journal BioScience in Nov. 2017 and thought to be the largest-ever formal support by scientists for a journal article (15,372 scientists from a range of scientific disciplines from 184 countries). Also reported on in VICE.
“To seriously fight climate change, more plant-based diets will be needed. Our analysis shows if the world went vegetarian that cut in food-related emissions would rise to 63%. And if everyone turned vegan? A huge 70%.”
Source: Scientific research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), via Elsevier Food Science, Going Veggie Would Cut Global Food Emissions by Two Thirds and Save Millions of Lives
“If every single techno fix [to mitigate climate change] was introduced – renewable power generation, lower carbon methods of tilling, waste recycling and so on – it would reduce CO2 emissions by between 1.5 and 4.3 gigatonnes (a gigatonne being a billion tonnes). However, if the world changed its diet and went completely vegan, emissions would drop by 7.8 gigatonnes.”
Source: The Guardian, citing a report written by Pete Smith of the Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Aberdeen, along with many other academics worldwide. Click through from http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-28/hamad-meat-the-hidden-culprit-of-climate-change/5414894
People who eat meat are responsible for almost twice as many dietary greenhouse-gas emissions per day as vegetarians and about two-and-a-half times as many emissions as vegans.
Source: Climactic Change journal, Dietary greenhouse gas emissions of meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans in the UK
Targeting the fossil fuel industry alone is insufficient because “the agricultural emissions … may be too high. Thus we have to take action in both sectors.”
Source: Climatic Change journal, The importance of reduced meat and dairy consumption for meeting stringent climate change targets
“Human consumption of meat and dairy products is a major driver of climate change, but this new paper finds that there is a major lack of public awareness and understanding of the link between eating meat and dairy and climate change.”
Source: Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, report Livestock – Climate Change’s Forgotten Sector: Global Public Opinion on Meat and Dairy Consumption
“We have shown that reducing meat and dairy consumption is key to bringing agricultural climate pollution down to safe levels.”
Source: Lead scientist Dr Fredrik Hedenus of a study done by Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden
“Greenhouse gas emissions from ruminant meat production are significant. Reductions in global ruminant numbers could make a substantial contribution to climate change mitigation goals and yield important social and environmental co-benefits.”
Source: Nature Climate Change journal, Ruminants, climate change and climate policy
“If global trends in meat and dairy intake continue, global mean temperature rise will more than likely exceed 2° C, even with dramatic emissions reductions across non‐agricultural sectors. Immediate and substantial reductions in wasted food and meat and dairy intake, particularly ruminant meat (e.g., beef and lamb), are imperative to mitigating catastrophic climate change. The urgency of these interventions is not represented in negotiations for climate change mitigation.”
Source: John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future
“Climate taxes on meat and milk would lead to huge and vital cuts in carbon emissions as well as saving half a million lives a year via healthier diets, according to the first global analysis of the issue” done by Oxford University’s the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food.
Source: Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food, as reported in the Guardian
“The meat-based food system requires more energy, land, and water resources than the lactoovovegetarian diet.”
Source: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Sustainability of meat-based and plant-based diets and the environment
“Recent studies support the hypothesis that plant-based diets are environmentally better than meat-based diets.”
Source: European Journal of Clinical Nutrition via PubMed / National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), Evaluating the environmental impact of various dietary patterns combined with different food production systems.
“Consuming a plant-based diet results in a more sustainable environment and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, while improving longevity, according to new research.”
Source: Science Daily, Vegetarian diets produce fewer greenhouse gases and increase longevity, say new studies. Also covered in Science World Report
“This explorative study demonstrated great potential for reduced climate impact through production of oat drink instead of cow’s milk, while still preserving grazing services for biodiversity conservation.”
Source: Researchgate/Agricultural Systems, Producing oat drink or cow’s milk on a Swedish farm — Environmental impacts considering the service of grazing, the opportunity cost of land and the demand for beef and protein
“Worldwide reduction of meat production in the pursuit of the targets set in the Kyoto treaty seems to carry fewer political unknowns than cutting our consumption of fossil fuels.”
Source: British physicist Alan Calverd in Physics World
“Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.” (Also found that animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, which UN FAO later reduced to 14.5%, still more than all forms of transportation combined. Also, UN FAO are the self-described partners of the livestock industry.
Source: Henning Steinfeld, Chief of UN FAO’s Livestock Information and Policy Branch and senior author of the report Livestock’s Long Shadow
More than 51% of Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are indirectly attributed to meat/dairy consumption.
Source: UN environmental specialists at Worldwatch and article published by the Worldwatch Institute in 2010 responding to critical comments
“Current dietary patterns high in animal products are incompatible with the aim of avoiding dangerous climate change. If left unchecked, the expected global rise in meat and dairy consumption… will leave agriculture to account for nearly the entire annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions limit foreseen for the mid-century.”
Source: European Commission
“Livestock production is also a leading cause of climate change, soil loss, water and nutrient pollution, and decreases of apex predators and wild herbivores, compounding pressures on ecosystems and biodiversity.”
Source: Science of the Total Environment, Biodiversity conservation: The key is reducing meat consumption
“Rising incomes and urbanization are driving a global dietary transition in which traditional diets are replaced by diets higher in refined sugars, refined fats, oils and meats. By 2050 these dietary trends, if unchecked, would be a major contributor to an estimated 80 per cent increase in global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from food production and to global land clearing.”
Source: Nature – International Journal of Weekly Science, Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health
“This piece briefly highlights two things: (1) animal agriculture is a leading cause of many major environmental problems we face globally and domestically—most importantly, climate change; and (2) animal agriculture is too often left out of the policy discussion.”
Source: Georgetown Environmental Law Review, A Leading Cause of Everything: One Industry That Is Destroying Our Planet and Our Ability to Thrive on It
“A team of scientists publishing in the journal Climatic Change say that a nationwide effort to swap beef with beans could help the U.S. meet more than 50% of its emissions goals by the year 2020.”
Source: PBS, Want to Help Fight Climate Change? Try Eating Some Beans, reporting on research published in Climactic Change, Substituting beans for beef as a contribution toward US climate change targets
If every American substituted beans for beef, “the U.S. could still come close to meeting its 2020 greenhouse-gas emission goals… even if nothing about our energy infrastructure or transportation system changed.”
Source: The Atlantic, If Everyone Ate Beans Instead of Beef, (referencing above Climactic Change study)
“The nonprofit Project Drawdown, which compiles research from an international coalition of scientists, says that ‘a plant-based diet may be the most effective way an individual can stop climate change.’ Adopting such a diet should be our first act of revolt.” Source: Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, Princeton Professor, and Presbyterian minister Chris Hedges in Truthdig, We Can’t Fight Climate Change if We Keep Lying to Ourselves, citing scientific research from Project Drawdown
“Eating less meat and wasting less food can play a big part in helping to keep a lid on greenhouse gas emissions as the world’s population increases.”
Source: Dr. Dave Reay, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh
“Producing meat creates more emissions than growing crops, as large amounts of cereals are grown to feed livestock.”
“University scientists say the 360,000 tonnes of milk wasted in the UK each year creates greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 100,000 tonnes of CO2. This is the same as is emitted by about 20,000 cars annually.”
“Halving the amount of chicken consumed in the UK and other developed countries to levels eaten in Japan could significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions. This would be equivalent to taking 10 million cars off the road.”
Source: University of Edinburgh
“There are basic laws of biophysics that we cannot evade. The average efficiency of livestock converting plant feed to meat is less than 3%, and as we eat more meat, more arable cultivation is turned over to producing feedstock for animals that provide meat for humans. The losses at each stage are large, and as humans globally eat more and more meat, conversion from plants to food becomes less and less efficient, driving agricultural expansion and land cover conversion, and releasing more greenhouse gases. Agricultural practices are not necessarily at fault here – but our choice of food is.”
Source: University of Cambridge Research, “Changing global diets is vital to reducing climate change,” quoting the lead researcher of the study “Importance of food-demand management for climate mitigation,” Bojana Bajzelj from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who authored the study with colleagues from Cambridge’s departments of Geography and Plant Sciences as well as the University of Aberdeen’s Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences
“This report concludes that grass-fed livestock are not a climate solution. Grazing livestock are net contributors to the climate problem, as are all livestock.”
Source: “Grazed and Confused? Ruminating on cattle, grazing systems, methane, nitrous oxide, the soil carbon sequestration question – and what it all means for greenhouse gas emissions” by Dr. Tara Garnett of the Food Climate Research Network at the University of Oxford, Cécile Godde at Australia’s national science agency the CSIRO and a team of international experts
“Methane (CH4) is particularly problematic as a greenhouse gas because it contributes to global warming to a much greater extent than carbon dioxide. Researchers at the Joint Global Change Research Institute in Maryland found global livestock CH4 emissions for 2011 were 11 per cent higher than the estimates based on guidelines provided by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2006 – the mechanism used to estimate global emissions.”
Source: The Irish Times reporting on the above scientific study
Independent, Governmental Agencies and Think Tanks
“Forget coal, forget cars. The fastest way to address climate change would be to dramatically reduce the amount of meat people eat.”
Source: Ilmi Granoff of the Overseas Development Institute in the United Kingdom
Shrink That Footprint “compares the carbon footprints of five different American diets and finds that when it comes to foodprints, vegans lead the way.”
Source: Shrink That Footprint
“The artificial meat and plant-based scenarios achieved the greatest land use and GHG reductions and the greatest carbon sequestration potential.”
Source: Study in Food Climate Research Network
The UK Department for Energy and Climate Change developed a Global Calculator showing the current Western animal-heavy diet is incompatible with climate action goals.
Source: UK Department for Energy and Climate Change Calculator (Summary)
The Danish Council on Ethics argues that beef falls into “a category of high climate impact that is very far from the other food categories, [which is why] a tax on this type of meat would be the right place to start.”
Source: Danish Council on Ethics as reported in Treehugger
“Reducing global meat consumption would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cut the costs of climate policy substantially. This is the result of a PBL study published in Climatic Change. Apart from a reduction in methane and N2O emissions, vast agricultural areas would become unused, mostly as a result of reduced cattle grazing, and could take up large amounts of carbon. Shifting worldwide to a healthy low-meat diet would reduce the costs of stabilising greenhouse gases at 450 ppm CO2 eq. by more than 50%.”
Source: PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, Climate benefits of changing diet
Medical Doctors
“It is rare that a single choice of ours can have a broad and decisive impact on the climate crisis. We have a moral imperative to choose and advocate for plant-based diets for the health of our planet and the well being and survival of generations to come.” Source: George C. Wang, M.D., Ph.D., geriatrician and integrative medicine physician and professor at Columbia University Medical Center and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine CNN, “Go vegan, save the planet”
“Human health must be linked to planetary health, and how we feed ourselves has a major impact on the planet… Our children and future generations will be horrified that collectively we paid no attention to these issues.” Source: The Globe & Mail article “Why the man who brought us the glycemic index wants us to go vegan” quoting Dr. David Jenkins, vegan and a Canada Research Chair in nutrition, metabolism and vascular biology, a professor in the department of nutritional sciences, faculty of medicine at the University of Toronto, and scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital who became the first Canadian recipient of the Bloomberg Manulife Prize for the Promotion of Active Health.
Political Leaders
“We have to change, we cannot go on with business as usual. We need each of us to think about our carbon footprint. Eat less meat, or no meat at all. Become vegetarian or vegan.” – The former president of Ireland Mary Robinson
“I think it is excellent that you have gone vegan, and I think that everybody should try to at least eat more grains, fruits, vegetables; partly because, as you say, if you look at the food chain, the more meat everybody eats the more polluting it is and the more wasteful it is. And also by the way from a health perspective, eating a lot of meat… it can put some strains on your heart.” – Former US President Barack Obama in a response to a vegan interviewer, who says both of his daughters have considered going vegan
When asked about addressing animal agribusiness as a Senator: “I’m very concerned about U.S. food policy. I posted a graphic yesterday comparing what our government says we should be eating – the My Plate, you know [a vegan plate]– and then you look at how we apply our subsidies. It’s dramatically out of whack. We’re subsidizing the very thing we tell people they should be eating less of. If we’re concerned about climate change as a country, we should have policies that make sure our great-grandchildren have a planet that’s healthy and strong. If we’re concerned about high medical costs, we should have a government that’s making sound investments with taxpayer dollars that don’t contribute to the problem but actually help [solve] the problem. Food is at the core of our lives in ways we don’t always think about – how it affects our environment, how it affects our health and well-being, how it affects the expense of society, the expense of government.” – NJ Senator and vegan, Corey Booker
“…an environmental consciousness that is demonstrated by the choices that I make in my own life. Little home in Cleveland, Ohio, 1600 square feet. A small Ford Focus that gets about you know, 30 some miles to a gallon. A vegan diet that is compassionate and mindful and respectful of the environment. See, if you want a leader who can reach out and lift this planet up, then we have to look at—how do you live? Because you can talk the talk, but do you walk the walk? And so, as I speak to you today, I want to demonstrate to you an awareness and an ability to be able to lead this country forward to a new era of environmental sustainability and environmental consciousness.” – Former U.S. Congressman and vegan, Dennis Kucinich
Business Leaders and Investors
A group of 40 investors managing $1.25 trillion in assets have launched a campaign to encourage 16 global food companies to shift from animal to plant protein for their products to help to reduce environmental and health risks. See: http://www.fairr.org/
“Ella McKinley, ethics analyst at Australian Ethical Investment… said the need to change food production models was essential to help to limit climate change. ‘Forward-looking companies can move now to encourage more sustainable diets by reducing reliance on meat and growing the market for plant-based protein alternatives. In the process, companies make their own protein supply chains more resilient to future shocks,’ she said.” As reported by Reuters
Climate Leaders and Nonprofits
“Meat consumption is a major driver of climate change, the extinction crisis and many other environmental problems.”
Source: Center for Biological Diversity
“Meat industry plays a key role in the increase of CO2 emissions in the world. Though many do not consider this when speaking of emission cuts, one key way to reduce emissions is by reducing the global meat consumption.”
Source: Vositha Wijenayake, Executive Director of Sri Lankan Youth Climate Action Network (attorney, human rights activist, and climate change expert)
“Beef is 34 times more climate pollution-intensive than legumes like beans and lentils, pound for pound. As leading sellers of meals in the United States, food service companies can champion climate-healthy menus by purchasing less red meat and more climate- and health-friendly produce and legumes.”
Source: Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
“Which would you rather do: Give up your car or give up eating meat? You might be surprised that taking meat off your menu could be the greener option. A 2006 report from The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization found that the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all the planes, trains and automobiles on the planet.”
Source: The Nature Conservancy
“The Natural Resources Defense Council, an international nonprofit environmental organization founded in 1970, has released a report on food and climate-warming pollution in the US which includes a list of 10 common foods that are considered to be highly climate-damaging, in relation to the amount of CO2 released for each kilogram of food produced.” 9 out of 10 of the foods on their list are animal-based.
Source: The Natural Resources Defense Council via CNN’s These are the most climate-damaging foods
Major Media Outlets
“Lesser consumption of animal products is necessary to save the world from the worst impacts of climate change.”
Source: The Guardian reporting on UN report Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production
“When it comes to doing our bit to tackle climate change, changing your diet is among the most effective strategies – especially if you’re a meat-eater. Looking to greener sources of protein is a good place to start. Meat’s carbon footprint is frightful. Producing a kilogram of beef generates 27 kilograms of CO2-equivalent. Lamb is even worse, at 39 kilograms. But lentils? Just 0.9 kilograms of CO2-equivalent for every kilo of the bean. Beans, or pulses, present a viable alternative source of protein for people across the planet.”
Source: Duetche Welle
“Meat is a luxury item and comes at a huge environmental cost. Shuttling crops through animals to make protein is highly inefficient: in US beef, just 5% of the original protein survives the journey from animal feed to meat on the plate. Even milk, which has the best conversion efficiency, has just 40% of the original protein… Livestock production is also one of the greatest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, including 65% of man-made nitrous oxide emissions (which have a global warming potential 296 times greater than CO₂).”
Source: The Conversation
“An abundance of science analyzing the impacts on the earth of livestock farming has concluded that humanity’s appetite for meat and dairy products is having serious environmental consequences. Livestock species contribute directly and indirectly to deforestation, water pollution, air pollution, greenhouse gases, global warming, desertification, erosion and human obesity, and virtually anywhere you go in the world, the damage done by ruminants, pigs and poultry, and those who grow feed crops for them, is visible on the land…
Opt out of the livestock industry. Far from depriving themselves of the greatest foods, vegetarians and vegans often discover that some of the very best edible things, prepared dishes and entire national cuisines are based on plants.”
Source: Smithsonian
“1. Become a vegetarian, or better yet a vegan. The share of greenhouse gas emissions from animal agriculture is usually pegged at 14.5 percent to 18 percent, but the Worldwatch Institute found lots of oversights in those calculations that, when properly counted, bring the ag contribution all the way up to 51 percent. That, you’ll notice, is more than half. Which means that after we clean up all the transportation, energy, industry and commerce in the world, we’ve done less than half the job. The other half is meat and dairy. Refuse to eat it.”
Source: Forbes, 9 Things You Can Do About Climate Change
“A vegan diet might make as much as a 20% difference to your overall carbon impact…”
Source: The Guardian, How to reduce your carbon footprint
“You’re better off eating vegetables from Argentina than red meat from a local farm. Eating local is lovely, but most carbon emissions involving food don’t come from transportation — they come from production, and the production of red meat and dairy is incredibly carbon-intensive.”
Source: The New York Times, What You Can Do About Climate Change
“But while cool, funky ‘green’ gadgets and technology are promoted in the media, there is one thing that doesn’t get nearly enough column inches, but which has a massive impact on climate change and the destruction and devastation of our environment. And that is animal agriculture.”
Source: The Scavenger, An even more inconvenient truth: Animal agriculture and the environment
“The reason [that urban farming won’t save us from climate change] is that while city-grown vegetables can have a slightly lower environmental impact than those grown thousands of miles away, horticulture has never been the real problem. It’s not apples and tomatoes that are responsible for most of the diet’s greenhouse gas emissions; it’s animals. Meat and dairy products contribute 54 percent of the American diet’s potential impact on climate change. If city residents really want to lower their carbon footprints, they should become vegan. For bonus points, they can turn their roofs into solar gardens instead of vegetable ones.” Source: Bloomberg, Urban Farming Won’t Save Us From Climate Change
Compiled by Lorelei Plotczyk for Truth or Drought and reprinted here with permission.
