Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers
by Poore, J & Nemecek 2018
This paper in particular illustrates the scale of the contribution of every aspect of factory farming contributes to the climate crisis . However to see the big picture most easily the place to start is a diagram from the supporting online material
🔗Source: Supplementary Materials for Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers
By the numbers
People who eat meat/diary beef use up to 160 times more resources and emit more GHGs than their plant based counterparts as the graph below showing
Estimated global variation in GHG emissions, land use, terrestrial acidification, eutrophication, and scarcity-weighted freshwater withdrawals, within and between 40 major foods. (A) Protein-rich products. Grains are also shown here given that they contribute 41% of global protein intake, despite lower protein content. (B) Milks. (C) Starch-rich products. (D) Oils. (E) Vegetables. (F) Fruits. (G) Sugars. (H) Alcoholic beverages (1 unit = 10 ml of alcohol; ABV, alcohol by volume). (I) Stimulants. n = farm or regional inventories. Pc and pctl., percentile; scty., scarcity.
🔗Source: Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers
The study showed that plant based milks for example were better for the environment than cow’s milk.
Another way to consider all of the above
and the study concludes
The study by Poore of Oxford University, published in Science 2018 and updated in 2019 , is based on almost 40,000 farms in 119 countries , covering 40 food products that represent 90% of all that is eaten. And that
🔗Source: Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers
So how much better for GHG emissions is a vegan diet than a meat based diet?
Men (observed values) | Women (observed values) | Adjusted for age and sex | ||||||
Participants | Mean dietary GHG emissions (kgCO2e) | SD | Participants | Mean dietary GHG emissions (kgCO2e) | SD | Mean dietary GHG emissions (kgCO2e) | 95 % CIs | |
All meat-eaters | 6,380 | 5.93 | 2.01 | 22,759 | 5.71 | 1.75 | ||
High meat-eaters ( ≥ 100 g/day) | 2,310 | 7.26 | 2.11 | 5,976 | 7.17 | 1.94 | 7.19 | (7.16, 7.22) |
Medium meat-eaters (50–99 g/day) | 2,654 | 5.66 | 1.60 | 9,317 | 5.62 | 1.38 | 5.63 | (5.61, 5.65) |
Low meat-eaters ( < 50 g/day) | 1,866 | 4.67 | 1.35 | 7,466 | 4.67 | 1.05 | 4.67 | (4.65, 4.70) |
Fish-eaters | 1,448 | 3.94 | 1.12 | 6,675 | 3.90 | 0.88 | 3.91 | (3.88, 3.94) |
Vegetarians | 3,641 | 3.85 | 1.29 | 12,110 | 3.80 | 0.93 | 3.81 | (3.79, 3.83) |
Vegans | 747 | 2.94 | 1.25 | 1,294 | 2.87 | 0.90 | 2.89 | (2.83, 2.94) |
🔗Source: Dietary greenhouse gas emissions of meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans in the UK
How much land does it take ?
“Without meat and dairy, global farmland use could be reduced by more than 75% – an area equivalent to the US, China, EU and Australia combined – and still feed the world”. Poores 2018
Put another way
What about soya - aren’t vegans and the soy they eat responsible for the destruction of the Amazon?
70% of soy is used for animal feed, 24% as biofuel and 6% for human consumption (One Green Planet)
Agriculture accounts for 80 of tropical deforestation, while logging is the biggest single driver of forest degradation Cleared land is used for cattle grazing, soybeans palm oil Drivers of Deforestation Forest Degradation) Since European settlement, 80 of Australia's eucalyptus forests have been cleared for farming/development Projections suggest that between 2010 and 2030 3 million hectares of untouched forest will be bulldozed in eastern Australia The crisis is driven primarily by a booming livestock industry Guardian
if we compare diary milk to soya milk or eggs with tofu we can see by GHG’s emitted, land use , acidification , eutrophication
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