Another week, another study confirming the overwhelming case for plant-based diets, see Researchers calculated what would happen if the entire US stopped eating meat. It’d be like taking 60 million cars off the road:
Electing to not eat meat is a sure-fire way to reduce your impact on the environment.
…Producing meat substitutes for a meatless diet emits about 80% less carbon than producing meat…Researchers calculated that if every American replaced all beef, chicken, and pork in their diet with a vegetarian option, that would save the equivalent of 280 billion kilograms (280 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide every year.
…Livestock farming also degrades land and water and contributes to deforestation — 30% of land worldwide is currently used either for livestock farming or to grow grain to feed that livestock.
…The plant-based diets that Eshel’s team used in their model mostly consisted of soy, green peppers, squash, buckwheat, and asparagus. These crops were picked because they were at least as nutritious, if not more beneficial, than the meats they replaced in terms of their contributions to people’s protein, vitamin, and fatty-acid needs.
Eight to ten billion people on earth can’t eat like we did when there were two to four–it’s that simple. The good news is that plant-based whole foods are delicious and healthy and will help to resolve the unsustainable burden of diet-related illness now crushing our present sick care system. Less sales for drug companies and a healthier population. Win, win.
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