According to a recent study published in The
Lancet, one of the most prestigious and oldest peer-reviewed medical journals,
eating a vegan
diet has less of an environmental impact than one that includes meat, dairy,
and eggs. Much less in fact.
The new study, led by Nicole Blackstone,
assessed six categories of environmental impact, including land use, water
depletion, climate change, respiratory inorganics, marine water eutrophication,
and freshwater eutrophication. Nearly all of the categories were affected by up
to 84 percent less by a plant-based diet when compared to one that included
animal products.
What’s more, the new research concluded that a
vegan diet produces a 42-84 percent lower burden on the environment than a
Mediterranean-style diet or the diet recommended by the U.S. government.
This isn’t the first time meat, dairy, and egg
production has been found to be unsustainable. A study published last month by
researchers at the University of Oxford found that ditching animal products
could reduce your food carbon footprint by 73 percent.
They also found that if everyone ate plant-based, global land use could be reduced
by 75 percent. This would be comparable to the size of the United States,
China, Australia, and the whole European Union combined. Let that sink in.
Similarly, a recent report from Farm Animal
Investment Risk and Return found that the meat industry was jeopardizing the Paris climate
agreement by failing to properly report its emissions, despite being
the single largest contributor to climate change.
The fact is raising animals
for food produces more greenhouse gas than all the cars, planes, and
other forms of transportation combined. According to the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, carbon dioxide emissions from raising farmed animals make up
about 15 percent of global human-induced emissions, with beef and milk
production as the leading culprits.
Plant-based alternatives to meat, dairy, and eggs
take a mere fraction of the resources to produce as
their animal-based counterparts. But a plant-based diet isn’t just good for the
planet—it also spares countless animals a lifetime of misery at factory farms.
From birth to death, these innocent animals are trapped in a nightmare: crated
and caged, cut and burned, and brutally killed.
There is no question that climate change is real,
and there is no question that raising animals for food is terrible for the
planet. Join the millions of people helping protect farmed animals and the planet by eating more plant-based foods.
Click here to get started, and click here
for our Pinterest page with hundreds of vegan recipes!