Plant based diet doubly good for climate: researchers

A mainly plant-based diet can lead to double climate gains, according to a group of international researchers, including from Leiden University. Eating meat causes relatively high CO2 emissions. However, the gain is not only in avoiding that. Agricultural land no longer needed for grazing animals and growing animal feed can be partly returned to its natural state. Plants and trees that grow on it then absorb carbon. 

In this way, people could theoretically remove nearly 100 gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere this century, lead researcher Zhongxiao Sun of the China Agricultural University and his colleagues calculated. That equates to about three times the total global emissions. Or, as the researchers wrote in the scientific journal Nature Food, fourteen times the total emissions now attributed to agriculture.

Livestock farming requires a lot of space. According to the researchers, about 35 percent of the world's habitable land and 80 percent of all agricultural land is now used for it. The described benefits for the climate would be achieved if the populations of 54 wealthy countries were to switch to the "planetary health diet." This diet consists mainly of fruits and vegetables, combined with small amounts of meat and dairy. It is designed to be healthy for people and the planet.

"It is an excellent opportunity to limit further warming of the climate," said Leiden researcher Paul Behrens. "We don't have to be puristic. Just reducing animal food intake would help.'