Have you ever wondered what would become of food insecurity if the whole world experienced a food revolution and went vegan?
Diet is no small factor in the carbon footprint department. Agriculture accounts for more than a quarter of our greenhouse gas emissions, and that’s not even taking into consideration factors like how your food gets from the farm or ranch to your grocery aisle.
The resounding message in the environmental community is: If you want to cut your carbon footprint, go vegan. It makes a difference! Since animals aren’t super efficient at converting plants to meat (blame the food chain for this one), it’s always going to take fewer resources to cultivate a plant-based diet than a meat-based one.
As meat critics tend to point out, is the sheer quantity of land that’s needed to raise livestock and grow their food – about half of the agricultural land on Earth. The vast majority of that land is grassland, roughly a third of which could be used to grow crops.
Paleoclimatologist Maureen Raymo, advised that drastically cutting or eliminating beef consumption specifically is probably the best bet to make a meaningful climate difference in your diet.
Original source: https://grist.org