Vegan diet leads to 75% cut in environmental damage, study shows

Eating a vegan diet massively reduces the damage to the environment caused by food production, the most comprehensive analysis to date has concluded

- Damian Carrington

The research showed that vegan diets resulted in 75% lower climate-heating emissions, water pollution and land use, compared with diets in which more than 100g of meat a day is eaten. Vegan diets also cut the destruction of wildlife by 66% and water use by 54%, the study found.

The heavy impact of meat and dairy on the planet is well known and people in rich nations will need to slash their meat consumption in order to limit the damage from the climate crisis. But previous studies have used model diets and average values for the impact of each food type.

In contrast, the new study analyses the real diets of 55,000 people in the UK. It also used data from 38,000 farms in 119 countries to account for differences in the impact of particular foods that are produced in different ways and places. This significantly strengthens confidence in the conclusions.