Besides being an ethical disaster, animal agriculture is without doubt a planetary and resource disaster as well. It is highly inefficient involving destruction beautiful forestry to create land to hold the animals, the amount of land used to grow plant food to feed the animals, and the amount of water it takes for grow the feed on top of cleaning and raising the animals from all their waste products. Furthermore, the methane released from growing animals is twenty-five times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Animal agriculture takes up 80% of agricultural land and 35% of habitable land worldwide, while producing up to 50 times more emissions than growing plant crops used for food. In addition, while taking up this much land, animal agriculture provides only 20% of the world’s supply of calories. This is just in direct to growing the food, the processing, delivery, and consumption only adds to the burden of animal agriculture on the planet and sustainability of human survival.

Published in journal Nature Food, researchers from Leiden University investigated the what a difference it would make on a global scale to the food system fifty-four high income nations switched to the pro plant-based diet, EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet. This diet is a scientifically-backed diet that is both environmentally sustainable and healthy for humans; a win-win situation.

The results showed that if these rich nations switched to EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet, essentially they will be providing the whole planet and future generations a BOGO deal.

The first difference it would make is the amount if carbon emission and land use. Switching to this plant rich diet would decrease greenhouse gas production by 61%. In addition, it would free up enough landmass equal the size of the entire European Union.

Second difference it would make is if these freed up land were converted back to their natural, and beautiful, natural states, that would generate a carbon capture system of almost 100 billion tons of carbon, or approximately 14 years of current global agricultural emissions. Thus preventing the 1.5C that can spell planetary doom.

Switching a plant-based diet as provided by the guidelines set but the EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet, not only provides a planet sustainable for future generations while bring back the beauty of it, but also provides a health diet enough to feed the world. This is efficiency; this is good industry; this is intelligence and foresight; this is a scenario that honorable men try to create for themselves and those they care about, and this is what nations who want to be leaders of the world will align themselves with.

Z Sun et al. Dietary change in high-income nations alone can lead to substantial double climate dividend. Nature Food 2022. 3(29-37). DOI: 10.1038/s43016-021-00431-5.