A report, published Monday 21 March in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, argues that a drastic change in diet could not only save trillions of dollars, but also millions of lives, as a shift in global eating patterns has the potential to reduce the planetary burden of greenhouse gas emissions and help halt the worst effects of climate change.
The report argues that food-related emissions could fall between 29 and 70 percent by 2050 were the world’s population to adhere to certain dietary guidelines established by global health agencies. Global mortality could drop by as much as 10 percent — preventing as many as 8.1 million deaths per year — and between $1 trillion and $31 trillion could be saved.
If those estimates seem to range pretty widely, it’s for a good reason. Marco Springmann, a research fellow at the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food and the study’s co-author, said the strikingly different estimates reflect a number of different scenarios — for example, a scenario where people simply eat less meat and more produce, versus scenarios where everyone in the world goes vegetarian or vegan. While the latter cases may seem extreme, even a more modest change could dramatically aid humanity, according to the research.
Over a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions come from food production, and up to 80 percent of that comes from resource-intensive livestock.
Man-made carbon emissions are the principal force driving climate change and its scourge of world-changing effects, including droughts, rising sea levels and human health crises.
Under one scenario proposed by the paper, the combined people of Earth would need to eat 25 percent more fruits and vegetables and 56 percent less red meat in order to save 5.1 million lives per year and achieve a 29 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Springmann pointed out that those figures are worldwide, and that in practice, different parts of the world would have to take different approaches. For example, while global fruit and vegetable consumption would have to go up by 25 percent, people in sub-Saharan Africa would have to begin eating 190 percent more produce.
If the planet were to go completely vegan, according to the report, it could prevent as many as 8.1 million deaths a year.
The authors of the report call on the world’s governments to encourage new eating habits. They also suggest that people use the data as a renewed call to purchase healthier food.
