million lives by 2050.[40]
Red meat is responsible for 10 to 40 times as many greenhouse gas emissions as veggies and grains. [41] Beef creates up to 105kg of greenhouse gases per 100g of meat, compared to tofu which produces less than 3.5kg.[42]
Put simply, cows create a lot of methane – basically they fart and burp a lot. Feeding cows grass is a very powerful way to create greenhouse gases. And dairy is not off the hook either. It takes about 1,000 litres of water to make 1 litre of dairy milk, compared to 297 litres for the same amount of soy milk.[43] The least sustainable plant-based milk is significantly more sustainable, from the perspective of emissions, land use and carbon footprint, than the most sustainable dairy milk.[44]
It’s also worth noting that by supporting dairy production, you are still supporting meat production.
They are part of the same manufacturing process, subject to the same questionable welfare issues, and retired dairy cows are often used for meat. It’s not much of a life …
People love dairy though. Cold milk on cereal, melted cheese on toast, clotted cream on scones, milk chocolate, whey protein, lattes … the list goes on and on. For a lot of people, dairy’s a difficult thing to kick because it’s everywhere. A couple of hours spent reading blog posts and watching videos that highlight the problems that surround the dairy industry in terms of ethics, health and the environment should show you that dairy isn’t all that cool.
Dairy alternatives have really improved over the past couple of years and, as they get more popular, which they will, the products available are only going to get even better, making the transition away from dairy much easier. See here for more on the plant-based alternatives that we enjoy regularly.
SO HOW EXACTLY DOES EATING VEGAN HELP?
All the energy we ingest through food has, originally, come from plants. This is the energy cycle we learned about in school. We are able to harvest and eat those plants to get all the energy, nutrients, minerals and vitamins we need from them (more on this later).
When we rear animals for eating, we take this efficient form of plant energy and use it to sustain animals, like cows and sheep, so we can eat them later. This is much less efficient! Also, since animals are living creatures, most of their food is actually used for energy for their own day-to-day activity. Only a tiny fraction of the nutrients and energy in the food they eat ends up in the meat we buy. Cows convert only 4% of the proteins and 3% of the calories of the plants we feed them into beef[45] – 97% of the calories they consume is completely lost to us. To produce 1kg of beef requires over 13,000 litres of water, a water footprint six times larger than for pulses.[46] Meat accounts for 22% of all water use.[47]
According to researcher Joseph Poore, from Oxford University, about 55% of the world’s land is farmed, and 80–85% of this is used to raise animals.[48] If as much of the land currently set aside for grazing animals regrows as trees, it will help remove carbon from the atmosphere – it is estimated there could be a reduction in greenhouse gases by as much as 30–50%. In addition, more than a billion extra tons of food crops could go to humans if we stopped feeding them to animals. [49]
So not only is a plant-based diet better for the planet in terms of the processes involved in rearing animals, but it can free up land for animals to live naturally again, and trees can grow in those spaces, which can then start to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. This is still the best approach for getting carbon out of the atmosphere – known as rewilding. It involves restoring natural forests, mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass beds. These natural habitats are the best way researchers have identified of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. And it would solve both climate breakdown and the extinction of species at the same time.[50]
Of course, we’re not suggesting it’s as simple as everyone, worldwide, stopping eating meat and redistributing the grain set aside to feed animals to hungry people while we all start planting trees. At the global level we need to consider the complexities of politics, the mechanisms of food distribution and the realities of farmers’ livelihoods. And at the local level we need to consider things like soil health, crop cycling and animal habitats.
We’re not claiming there’s some kind of magic solution, but the answer lies in this direction. These facts go to show how inefficient our current main choice of protein is, and why it’s literally chewing up the Earth’s resources.
WHAT ABOUT THE FARMER?
A note from Ian
I grew up in a reasonably big city. I love cities. I like their vibrancy, the people, the history, the architecture and the energy. Having said this, I also love the countryside. I was lucky enough to spend a good chunk of my childhood in a small (and I mean very small) village called Gunthorpe.
My grandparents, Charlie and Winnie, owned and ran a small arable farm there. I have many fond memories of that farm. The memories mostly revolve around my grandma’s wonderful cooking, but also exploring the old farm buildings and riding around in my grandad’s tractor as he ploughed fields, planted seeds and harvested crops.
I look back now, and realise that my grandfather worked bloody hard. All farmers do. When I say ‘worked bloody hard’ I don’t mean, ‘I got to the office at 9am, hammered out some emails then had lunch, had a meeting, smashed out a couple of spreadsheets and was home for 6.30pm.’ I mean, ‘I woke up at 4.30am, headed to one of my huge fields, smashed out some back-breaking labour until it got too dark to carry on, got home for 10pm, went to bed and hit repeat the next day. Every day.’
I understand how hard farmers work and I’ve got nothing but the utmost respect for their tremendous work ethic. However, having said that, I wholeheartedly believe that some of the practices used in farming need to be re-evaluated and reformed. As the UK edges ever closer towards a more vegan way of life, and demand for vegan products grows and demand for non-vegan products declines, it’s absolutely essential we give our farmers the tools, education and incentives they need to adapt and thrive. We need to work with farmers to harness their unquestionable and inspiring work ethic and experience, and include them as a big, important part of the inevitable switch to plant-based living.
We’ve been talking a lot about meat, but we shouldn’t ignore our sea-dwelling friends either.
Half of all marine life has been lost in the last 40 years[51] and 87% of fish populations are fully or over-exploited.[52]
We’ve already killed 90% of big ocean predatory fish,[53]and it’s been predicted that our world will run out of saltwater fish by 2048.[54]
Increasing sea temperatures have destroyed coral reefs and all coral reefs are projected to be lost by 2050.[55]
Fishing is also a grossly inefficient way of eating; for every 1lb of fish caught, up to 5lb of unintended marine species are caught and discarded as by-kill.[56]
FEEDING A GROWING POPULATION
There’s another thing to consider when thinking about the sustainability of our current diets. Our nutritional needs are going to evolve over the next few decades with the human population expected to reach more than 9 billion by 2050 – a third higher than it is today.[57]
So what’s the answer? Meat? No. Increasing annual meat production is a bad idea, however we do it. All approaches will use more land, create more deforestation, more climate change, more loss of biodiversity.[58] Feeding grain to livestock increases demand for grain