Replacing half of meat and dairy products with plant-based alternatives would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions related to agriculture, an essential step to stop global warming and mitigate the effects caused by climate change.
That is the main conclusion of a study carried out by 13 researchers and published this Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, carried out by researchers from the University of Vermont, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the Bioversity International Alliance and the Center International Tropical Agriculture Organization (CIAT).
This is the first work to analyze global food security and the environmental impacts of consuming plant-based meat and milk on a large scale, taking into account the complexity of food systems.
“We will need much more than ‘meatless Mondays’ to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, and this study shows us a way forward,” says Eva Wollenberg of the University of Vermont (USA). .).
According to their findings, additional climate and biodiversity benefits could be gained from reforesting land free of livestock production when meat and dairy products are replaced with plant-based alternatives, doubling climate benefits and halving future declines. of ecosystem integrity by 2050.
The restored area could contribute up to 25% of the estimated global land restoration needs, according to Target 2 of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework for 2030.
Wollenberg emphasizes that “plant-based meats are not just a novel food product, but a crucial opportunity to achieve climate and food security goals and, at the same time, health and biodiversity goals around the world.” “These transitions are challenging and require a variety of technological innovations and policy interventions,” he adds.
“Understanding the impacts of dietary changes expands our options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Changing diets could also generate enormous improvements for biodiversity,” adds Marta Kozicka, researcher at the IIASA Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program.
The authors developed dietary change scenarios based on plant-based recipes of beef, pork, chicken and milk, which were designed to be nutritionally equivalent to the original animal protein products and realistic for existing food manufacturing capabilities and ingredients. of production available in the world.
In their findings, they found that replacing 50% of meat and dairy products would substantially reduce the growing impacts of food systems on the natural environment by 2050, such as 12% less global agricultural area, almost completely curbing the reduction of the area of ??forests and other natural lands and half of the projected nitrogen contributions to croplands.
In addition, there would be a 10% reduction in water use and a reduction of 2.1 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent per year in 2050 (31% less compared to 2020) and global malnutrition would decrease to 3.6% ( 31 million fewer malnourished people).
While the study supports increased use of plant-based meat substitutes, the authors recognize that livestock are a valuable source of income and food for smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries. Therefore, they consider it crucial to adopt rapid political and management measures to avoid environmental risks and support farmers and other actors in the livestock value chain for a socially just and sustainable food system transition.
The main impacts on agricultural consumption use occur in China and on environmental outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa and South America. In our case, Spain is the first European country and the fifth in the world that consumes the most meat per person per year, according to Greenpeace data.
