Vegan diet has a much more positive impact on environment, study finds

A vegan diet causes less damage to the environment than a high-meat diet, claims a study conducted by researchers in the UK.

The researchers at the University of Oxford analysed the eating habits of 55,000 people in the UK and used data from as many as 38,000 farms located in 119 countries for their study. It revealed that vegan diets reduce climate-heating emissions, water pollution, and land use by 75 percent when compared to diets containing more than 100g of meat daily.

It also reduces wildlife destruction by 66 percent and water usage by 54 percent. The study further stated that the kind of food consumed had a much more significant impact on the environment than the way it was produced.

The study, which has been published in the journal Nature Food, found that low-meat diets that contain less than 50g of meat a day have half the impact on greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, and land use.

"Cutting down the amount of meat and dairy in your diet can make a big difference to your dietary footprint," said Professor Peter Scarborough, the lead author of the study.

With meat consumption in developing economies rising rapidly, a global rise in temperatures cannot be averted if a high-meat diet becomes the norm. The authors have called for policy changes to reduce meat production and consumption.

They recommend public awareness and effective government leadership to tackle unsustainable meat consumption, which is a necessity and a key opportunity for win-win policy-making.

Awareness will have to be created through information disseminated by trusted sources like the government, which should come out with policy interventions as well, the team found during the public survey.

However, the UK government has made it clear that it will not tell people what to eat or what to skip.

"People should make their own decisions around the food they eat. Achieving the net-zero target is a priority, and whilst food choices can have an impact on greenhouse gas emissions, well-managed livestock also provide environmental benefits such as supporting biodiversity, protecting the character of the countryside, and generating important income for rural communities," said a government spokesperson.

Followers of a vegan diet don't eat any animal products. That includes meat, fish, and dairy products like cheese and milk. Many vegans also cut honey from their diet because it is made by bees, although this is a point of contention for some.

What do the other studies say?

A similar study conducted in 2012 revealed that eating less meat and recycling waste would rebalance the global carbon cycle and help tackle global warming.

Researchers from the University of Exeter warned that if people do not cut their meat consumption, the planet is headed for disaster.

By 2050, a "high-meat, low-efficiency" scenario would add 55 ppm of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, whereas a "low-meat, high-efficiency" approach with carbon dioxide removal could remove 25 ppm, it said.

A 25-ppm reduction could mean we avoid exceeding the two-degree rise in global temperatures that is now widely accepted as a safe threshold.

Another study conducted by Chatham House and Glasgow University claimed that reducing meat consumption worldwide to moderate levels could be the trick to checking global warming and keeping it below the 2°C threshold.

Not only will reduced meat consumption decrease global warming, but it will indirectly benefit the health of consumers as well. In industrialised countries, the average person is already eating twice as much meat as is deemed healthy by experts. This is contributing to the rise of obesity and diseases like cancer and type-2 diabetes.

The World Health Organisation has shown that the consumption of processed meat causes colorectal cancer while eating red meat is "probably carcinogenic to humans."