The idea behind this: is people raise animals (to consume) for up to 24 months, sometimes, putting in a lot of resources for an end product that is less than what was put into it. As well, as 70% of food-related emissions are from meat related products.
According to the researchers, global adoption of meat-free or meat-reduced diets could:
- Avoid 5.1 million deaths by 2050, a number that goes up to 7.3 million for a vegetarian diet and 8.1 million for a vegan diet
- Reduce greenhouse gases by two thirds
- Cut food related emissions by 29 percent -- 63 percent for a vegetarian diet and 70 percent for a vegan diet
- Help save around £500 million in healthcare, unpaid informal care and lost working days.
According to researchers at Oxford University, worldwide veganism would also save some $700 billion to $1 trillion per year on health care, and cut food-related emissions by 70 percent. The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, mark the first time that researchers have looked into the impact of a worldwide vegan diet on health and climate change.Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...b0a06d58056f03Currently, greenhouse gas emissions linked to food make up half of the pollution that the planet can afford to maintain if global warming its to be kept below 2°C.
But 70 per cent of food-related emissions would be cut if people adopted a vegan diet, dropping to 63 per cent with a vegetarian diet. Meanwhile, following global dietary guidelines would be cut emissions by 29 per cent.
UNEP
Analysis and valuation of the health and climate change cobenefits of dietary change