Carbon
About 75% smaller climate footprint
75%Less climate-heating emissions vs high-meat
It is magnitudes more efficient to eat plants directly rather than feeding plants to animals and then harming the animals to eat them. Animals have to eat and drink too, so we grow plants for them first — most of those calories never reach us, they turn into heat, waste, and methane. Food production is about 26% of global greenhouse gases; most of that from animals and animal feed. In UK research among about 55,000 people, vegan diets produced about 75% less climate-heating emissions, water pollution, and land use than high-meat diets. Due to the significant amount of resources it takes to breed, raise, and kill animals, eating vegan foods only even from across the world, is magnitudes more efficient than eating locally raised and harmed animals. All of that extra climate cost and violence would be gone if we didn’t harm or kill animals.
What the evidence says
The main points first. Every claim is tied to a source below.
Our World in Data · Poore & Nemecek (2018)
Animal foods account for most of the food system’s climate emissions
To eat animals we first have to grow plants for them. Then the animal turns most of those calories into heat, poop, and methane — a gas that traps heat in the air. About 80% of agricultural land is in that loop. Xu and colleagues split the global food system: about 57% of the climate-heating gases come from animal foods including feed, and about 29% from plant foods. Eating plants directly skips that extra step. We do not have to harm or eat animals at all.
Our World in Data · Environmental impacts of food production
Food production is over a quarter of global greenhouse gases
Our World in Data: food production accounts for over a quarter (26%) of global greenhouse gas emissions. A large share of that is farm animals — methane, manure, and the land cleared to grow their feed. What is on the plate is climate policy.
Our World in Data · Poore & Nemecek (2018)
About 75% less climate impact than a high-meat diet
Among about 55,000 people in the UK, vegan diets produced about 75% less greenhouse-gas emissions — and less water pollution and land use — than high-meat diets (100 grams of meat a day or more). That finding was published in Nature Food.
Our World in Data · You want to reduce the carbon footprint of your food? Focus on what you eat, not whether your food is local
Eating local does not help when you are eating animals
Because of the resources and energy it takes to raise an animal, eating local does not help when you are eating animals. Eating vegan foods from across the world is still magnitudes more efficient, as plants barely require much — and plants are fed to farm animals anyway. Cows can eat over 100 pounds of plant foods and drink over 40 gallons of water a day. For most meals, the choice between animal and plant foods matters more for climate impact than food miles. Poore’s global meta-analysis found that avoiding meat and dairy is the single biggest way to cut a meal’s climate impact.
Sources
Papers and datasets. Caveats stay on the card — small samples and single animals included on purpose.
Nature Food, 2023 · Observational
Vegans, vegetarians, fish-eaters and meat-eaters — UK environmental impacts
Among ~55,000 UK eaters, vegan diets produced about 75% less greenhouse-gas emissions, water pollution, and land use than high-meat diets (≥100 g meat/day).
Yale Environment 360 · Observational
Vegan diet and climate — Yale e360 digest
Digest of the Nature Food cohort: vegan diets produced ~75% less climate-heating emissions than high-meat diets.
Our World in Data · Review
Food choice vs eating local
What you eat (plants vs animals) matters more than how far it traveled for most meals.
Science · Meta-analysis
Poore & Nemecek — reducing food’s environmental impacts
Avoiding meat and dairy is the single biggest way to cut your food’s climate, land, and water impact — larger than buying local or organic.
Nature Food, 2021 · Observational
Global GHG emissions from animal-based foods are twice plant-based
Xu et al.: 57% of food-system greenhouse gases come from animal-based foods (including feed), versus 29% from plant-based foods. Animal-based foods account for about twice the greenhouse gases of plant-based foods.