There is massive impact on the planet created by the millions upon millions of producers involved in the overall food supply chain. The aggregation of the impact from all of these suppliers is one of the largest single factors affecting our environment. Hence there are always many scientific studies running looking at aspects of the industry seeking opportunities for improvement.
We have noted elsewhere on this site the importance of considering the authenticity of research scientists, any funding bias in the research, and the academic peer review process the research has been subjected to before making up your mind as to the authority that should be seen in it.
One such interesting piece of unfunded research from Oxford University (https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a63fb28c-98f8-4313-add6-e9eca99320a5) was reported in Science Magazine (01 June 2018: Vol 360, Issue 6392, pp. 987-992 COI: 10.1126/science.aaq0216 and can be found at https://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6392/987 ).
The research suggests that switching to a vegan diet could be the ‘single biggest way’ any individual can reduce their carbon footprint and therefore their environmental impact on the planet. The researchers from University of Oxford found that cutting meat and dairy products from your diet could reduce an individual’s carbon footprint from food by up to 73 per cent. If everyone stopped eating meat and dairy products, they found that global farmland use could be reduced by 75 per cent, an area equivalent to the size of the US, China, Australia and the EU combined. This would result in a significant drop in greenhouse gas emissions and it would also free up wild land that has been lost to agriculture. Wild land repurposed for agriculture is one of the primary causes for mass wildlife extinction.
This study is a comprehensive analysis of data from approximately 40,000 farms across 199 different countries. It was considered one of the most comprehensive studies ever completed at the time it was filed. The findings show that meat and dairy production is responsible for 60 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, while the products themselves provide just 18 per cent of calories and 37 per cent of protein levels. The researchers examined 40 agricultural products that account for 90 per cent of all food that is eaten by humans on the planet. They looked at how each of these impacted the environment by analyzing climate change emissions, water pollution and air pollution.
The lead researcher (J Poore) is quoted as saying:
“A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use. It is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car” (he added in explanation that cutting down on flights or buying an electric car would only reduce greenhouse gas emissions).
He then continued by saying:
“Avoiding consumption of animal products delivers far better environmental benefits than trying to purchase sustainable meat and dairy”
Their research also considered the different techniques used to produce the same foods. They found vast distinctions in terms of environmental impacts. For example, beef-cattle reared on natural pastures used 50 times less land than those raised on deforested land. This factor alone accounts for 12 times more greenhouse gas emissions when beef-cattle are raised on deforested land.
Poore explains that even production methods sustainable production methods, such as freshwater fish farming and grass-fed beef, pose environmental problems.
In an interview with The Guardian, Poole said “Converting grass into (meat) is like converting coal to energy. It comes with an immense cost in emissions”.
“The problem is, you can’t just put environmental labels on a handful of foods and look to see if there is some effect on purchasing,” he said.
“Consumers take time to become aware of things, and then even more to act on them. Furthermore, the labels probably need to be in combination with taxes and subsidies. My view is that communicating information to consumers could tip the entire food system towards sustainability and accountability.”
The research was the result of a five year project, which began as an investigation into the sustainable production of meat and dairy.
Joseph Poole can be seen addressing an audience on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/8miQs3mPGu8