Avoiding consumption of meat and dairy is the single biggest way to reduce environmental impact on Earth, a new study has found.
The new analysis shows that without meat and dairy consumption, global agricultural land would be reduced by more than 75 percent which is equal to the size of the US, China, European Union and Australia combined, and there would still be enough food to feed the world. The loss of land to agriculture is the leading cause of the mass extinction of wildlife.
Meat and dairy provide just 18 percent of calories and 37 percent of protein, but it uses 83 percent of farmland and produces 60 percent of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions. The scientists also found that even the very lowest impact meat and dairy products still cause much more environmental harm than the least sustainable vegetable and cereal growing.
“Agriculture is a sector that spans all the multitude of environmental problems,” said Joseph Poore, at the University of Oxford, UK, who led the research. “Really it is animal products that are responsible for so much of this. Avoiding consumption of animal products delivers far better environmental benefits than trying to purchase sustainable meat and dairy.”
> Shiuly Rina
A single Biggest Way to Reduce Your Impact on Earth is Avoiding Meat and Dairy
