The first comprehensive study on global impacts of dietary change finds that meat-free and vegan diets offer the best combination of health benefits and reduced GHG emissions.
A global switch to diets that rely less on meat and more on fruit and vegetables could save up to 8 million lives by 2050, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by two thirds, and lead to healthcare-related savings and avoided climate damages of $1.5 trillion (US), according to a study by the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food. Effects would be spread across the world, with different regions benefiting in different ways.This is the first study to estimate both the health and climate change impacts of moving towards more plant-based diets for all major world regions.
The researchers modelled four different dietary scenarios for the year 2050: a ‘business as usual’ scenario; a scenario based on global dietary guidelines (with recommended intakes of fruits and vegetables, and limits on red meat, sugar, and total calories); and vegetarian and vegan scenarios.
They found that adopting diets in line with global dietary guidelines could avoid 5.1 million deaths per year by 2050. Even greater benefits could come from vegetarian diets (avoiding 7.3 million deaths) and vegan diets (avoiding 8.1 million deaths). Approximately half of the avoided deaths were due to reduction of red meat consumption, with the other half due to a combination of increased fruit and vegetable intake and a reduction in calories, leading to fewer people being overweight or obese.
At the same time, adopting global dietary guidelines would cut food-related emissions by 29%, vegetarian diets by 63%, and vegan diets by 70%.
The researchers also modelled the economic benefits of dietary change and found that the changes in diets could produce savings of $700-$1,000 billion (US) per year on healthcare, unpaid informal care and lost working days. In addition, the researchers found that the economic benefit of reduced greenhouse gas emissions from dietary changes could be as much as $570 billion (US).
“Putting a dollar value on good health and the environment is a sensitive issue,” said Dr Marco Springmann, who led the study. “However, our results indicate that dietary changes could have large benefits to society.’
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Published Monday 11 April 2016
Sustain: Sustain The alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity.
