![]() In the West, they found that consumption of red meat needs to fall by around 75%, to be replaced by a near 100% rise in the consumption of lentils, beans, legumes or nuts.Ī series of international pledges have promised to return 1 billion hectares of agricultural land to nature by 2030 – eating crops directly, rather than cycling them through livestock first, will be an important step towards making this possible. In 2018, the EAT-Lancet Commission brought together human health and environmental sustainability experts to develop science-based targets for healthy diets 7. If we are to hit the 2015 Paris Agreement climate target, it’s essential that this move to reduce meat intake is not just a passing trend. Research from the University of Oxford has shown that these benefits do, indeed, correlate – the healthiest foods also have the lowest environmental impact 6, with plant-based foods scoring better on both measures than meat and dairy products in general, and processed meats in particular. Veganuary is tapping into a wider trend, with surveys showing increasing interest in reduced meat diets, for their positive impact on both planetary and human health. Their campaign – which asks people to “go vegan” for the month of January – has grown from around 10,000 initial sign-ups to more than 600,000 each year (with possibly many more joining unofficially), and seen participation across the globe. When Jane Land and her partner Matthew Glover launched the Veganuary campaign from their kitchen in the UK in January 2014, they had little idea of the phenomenon they were about to unleash. The “carbon opportunity cost” is enormous – by this measure, for instance, one kilogram of beef protein is responsible for 1,250 kilograms of CO 2e 2, equivalent to the emissions of five return plane journeys from London to Rome 3, and 27 times that of one kilogram of protein derived from pulses. It also represents a lost opportunity – millions of hectares of land that could sequester carbon are instead being used for pasture and to grow feed crops. Animal agriculture now occupies more than 40% of all habitable land on Earth 1. ![]() ![]() The impact of the current food system on global and local ecosystems is ruinous – our demand for meat is one of the primary causes of greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and biodiversity loss. ![]() Our lopsided dietary preferences have led us to breed billions of farm animals – meaning we now share the planet with 22 billion chickens, well over a billion each of cows and sheep, hundreds of millions of pigs, and a host of other domesticated creatures. At a time when a third of the global population faces food insecurity, the developed world consumes staggering quantities of meat – meat mostly raised on industrialised farms at huge environmental cost. When the digestive gases of livestock occupy global headlines you know that something, somewhere, is going badly wrong. ![]()
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