Cutting meat from the diet would be like taking 8 million cars off the road: this is one of the findings of new research about the impacts what we eat has on our planet.
Oxford University investigates for the first time the difference high- and low-meat diets have on greenhouse gas emissions and Prof Peter Scarborough who led the new research, said «Our results show that if everyone in the UK who is a big meat-eater reduced the amount of meat they ate, it would make a really big difference. You don’t need to completely eradicate meat from your diet».
According to Prof Susan Jebb, head of the Food Standards Agency and a world-leading nutrition scientist at Oxford University, even though it is well established that producing meat has a bigger environmental footprint, it has never been calculated in such detail
The results collected by the research show that a big meat-eaters diet produces an average of 10.24 kg of planet-warming greenhouse gasses each day. While people who eat lower meat produce almost half that at 5.37 kg per day. On the other hand, vegan diets’ levels of greenhouse gasses halved to 2.47 kg a day.
However, a separate study published in Nature Food in 2021 examined that food production was responsible for a third of all global greenhouse gas emissions.
Furthermore, an independent review for the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) called for a 30% reduction in meat consumption by 2032 in order to meet the UK’s net zero target.
In particular, a Defra spokesperson said «People should make their own decisions around the food they eat». «Achieving the net zero target is a priority for this government, 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».
Show Comments