If everyone were vegan, only a quarter of current farmland would be needed (2024)

FAQs

If everyone were vegan, only a quarter of current farmland would be needed? ›

If everyone were vegan, agriculture would need just a quarter of the land it uses today. Even a diet avoiding only meat from cattle and sheep would cut land use in half. What might that surplus space be used for? Quadrupling food production is not a viable option.

“If everyone were vegan, only a quarter of current farmland would be needed. Most is currently used to grow plants to feed animals.”

If there were no meat sales the animals would have to be destroyed, to avoid cruel deaths from neglect. This happened a couple of years ago when pigs couldn't be sold due to lack of capacity in the UK meat processing industry (shortages of carbon dioxide perhaps?) so large numbers of pigs had to be culled.

Emissions. Food production is responsible for a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from cows burping methane. Methane is such a potent greenhouse gas that a global switch to plant-based diets would cut emissions from food production by 28 per cent – that's the equivalent of India going carbon neutral.

However, crop-only production and an exclusively vegan diet may lead to the loss of important plant and animal genetic materials, increase pressure on land and water resources, and exacerbate problems with agricultural crop residues.

By one estimate, a complete phaseout of meat over 15 years would cut as much as one-third of all methane emissions and two-thirds of all nitrous oxide emissions. Water use would fall drastically. Biodiversity loss would slow.

BEING VEGAN CAN SAVE:

200 animals per year. 1.3 million gallons of water. 1.5 tons of carbon emissions.

Unless there is a disastrous failure in crop production, it is near certain that there is enough food in the world to feed everyone a vegetarian diet. This would require the human-edible food currently fed to farmed animals to be eaten directly by humans.

A vegan diet not only has the potential to end animal cruelty in factory farms but also has the power to help create a kinder world overall. By choosing to adopt a plant-based lifestyle, we are making a conscious decision to promote compassion, empathy, and respect for all living beings.

He said: "It's a secret that's so big, I'm almost afraid to say it on national television." "After all these years, I can finally admit that I actually love vegan food," he added before saying that it has taken "20 years to get to this point." In recent years, Ramsay showed some understanding of plant-based food.

What would happen if all animals were vegan? ›

So if all animals on Earth only ate plants, millions of carnivore and omnivore species would die out. That's a problem, because meat-eating animals play an important role on our planet. Take, for example, scavengers such as vultures, ravens, dogs and flies.

Today, the UN says meat and dairy (farmed livestock) accounts for 11.2% of manmade greenhouse gas emissions. But, if we all went vegan, scientists believe the world's food-related emissions might drop by 68% within 15 years, limiting global warming.

As of January 2021, about 1% of the world's population is vegan, which amounts to roughly 79 million people. Since veganism is on the rise, this percentage is likely to grow steadily over the next few years. The prediction is that by 2031, one in ten people will be vegan.

Study: In Addition to Health Benefits, Vegan Diet Has Economic Advantages. Eating a vegan diet could reduce grocery bill 16%, a savings of more than $500 a year, according to new research. Kahleova et al. found that a low-fat vegan diet was associated with an approximately 16% decrease in total food costs.

Environmental Benefits

At the local level, one of the advantages of veganic farming is a significant reduction in water pollution. Synthetic fertilizers release nutrients so rapidly that groundwater can become contaminated with nitrogen and phosphorus.

The study found that, compared to meat-heavy diets, vegan diets resulted in 75 percent less land use, 54 percent less water use, and 66 percent less biodiversity loss. A vegan diet avoids all animal products, including meat, eggs and dairy.

If everyone were vegan, agriculture would need just a quarter of the land it uses today. Even a diet avoiding only meat from cattle and sheep would cut land use in half. What might that surplus space be used for? Quadrupling food production is not a viable option.

Global Shift to Vegan Diet Would Sustainably Feed 10 Billion People, Study Finds. Switching to a plant-based diet, halving food waste, and improving existing farming practices can feed the projected world population of 10 billion by 2050, says a new study published today in the journal Nature.

And get this: One person who goes vegan can save approximately 219,000 gallons of water a year. It takes 1,000 gallons of water to produce just one gallon of milk, and beef has an overall water footprint of roughly 4 million gallons per ton.