Whether you think it’s a fad or a food revolution, the popularity of veganism has skyrocketed. Figures show there are now 600,000 vegans in the UK – a dizzying 300% increase since 2014.
Why are more of us than ever cutting out meat, fish, dairy and eggs? For many, the environment is a big factor. This year, a record 700,000 people signed up for Veganuary and the environment was one of the top three reasons for taking part. But what impact can you have in just four weeks?
Experts say giving up animal products for a month could save as many greenhouse gas emissions as moving 160,000 cars from the road, or about 400,000 to 500,000 single flights from London to Berlin. So, imagine the benefits if everyone went vegan.
How is a vegan diet better for the planet?
One answer is the huge environmental cost of industrialised animal farming. Today, the UN says meat and dairy (farmed livestock) accounts for 11.2% of manmade greenhouse gas emissions. But if we all went vegan, the world’s food-related emissions would drop 68% within 15 years, limiting global warming.
Sound good? Well, it is. But, as always, the devil’s in the detail.
Just as it’s possible to be vegan and still eat unhealthily – without the right food balance, vegans can miss out on important vitamins, proteins and fatty acids, and eat too many saturated fats – there are some vegan foods which aren’t great for the planet.
If you’re vegan (or thinking about making the switch) but want to keep your carbon footprint as light as possible, here are some points to consider.
Plant-based milks
Did you know it takes 74 litres of water to make a single glass of almond milk? That’s more than a typical shower. Rice milk is also quite ‘thirsty’, needing 54 litres of water per glass. These numbers are still low compared to dairy milk, but they’re far higher than soya or oat milk.
The following table shows how alternative milks compare when it comes to carbon emissions, land use and water use:
Avocados
Whether you prefer them smashed on toast or folded into a wrap, avocados are another water-hungry crop. It’s tricky to pin an exact ‘water footprint’ on the little green fruit, but some sources say it takes 227 litres (60 gallons) of water to grow a single avocado, while others put it at 824 litres (183 gallons) per kilogram.
Worldwide, nearly 3 million Olympic-sized swimming pools of water are used every year in avocado production, creating some unexpected environmental consequences. For example, Chile is now suffering from severe droughts, believed to be caused by water being diverted from rivers to avocado farms, while in Mexico, demand for avocados has led to illegal deforestation as more farmers are keen to profit from these increasingly valuable crops.
If you want to buy avocados sustainably, one option is to choose those certified by a scheme like Fairtrade or Equal Exchange. And if you want to get an avocado’s amazing nutritional benefits, such as B vitamins, healthy fats and vitamin E, there are lots of alternatives.
As food journalist Joanna Blythman explains, ‘if you’re buying [an avocado] for vitamin E, sunflower seeds are a richer source. If you’re hunting down vitamin K, you’ll find heaps in broccoli and cabbage. For monounsaturated fats, turn your attention to extra virgin olive oil or olives. To pack in the folate/vitamin B9, go for lentils and cauliflower.’
Soya
Packed with vitamins, soya beans are also incredibly versatile. You’ll find them in tofu, flour, meat-free burgers, veggie sausages and much more.
So far, so great for vegans. But according to the WWF, soy is the second largest agricultural driver of deforestation worldwide after beef; ‘from the US to the Amazon, forests, grasslands, and wetlands are being plowed up to make room for more soy production.’ This has led to a persistent myth that eating soy is worse for the planet than eating beef.
In fact, only 6% of soy is grown for human consumption in products such as soy milk, tofu and edamame, while roughly 81% is grown to feed livestock, mainly cows, pigs and chickens. And when it comes to deforestation, soy accounts for just a fraction of Amazon deforestation compared with 80% for cattle farming.
There has also been a ‘soy moratorium’ in place in Brazil since 2006. This agreement between major soya companies not to buy any beans grown on recently deforested land has led to an 84% decrease in Brazilian Amazon deforestation. We’ll raise a glass of soya milk to that!
Palm oil
From soap to sweets, margarine to make-up, palm oil is in around half of all supermarket products – and it’s a common ingredient in vegan alternatives, such as non-dairy ice creams and cheeses.
In theory, there’s no problem with cultivating palm oil. The problem is that it’s often grown irresponsibly – and the rapid rise in palm oil production, in Southeast Asia in particular, has caused huge deforestation and pushed the orangutan towards extinction. Environmental campaigners Rainforest Rescue claim an area of forest the size of a 300 football pitches is lost in Indonesia every hour to palm oil farmers.
Though some critics aren’t convinced about its environmental credentials, there is a sustainable palm oil scheme, and a growing number of global brands have pledged to produce more sustainable palm oil, including L’Oreal, Nestlé and Unilever.
Imported fruit
Evidence shows that vegan diets tend to have far lower carbon, water and ecological footprints than those of meat- or fish-eaters. Although one Italian study found two vegan participants with extremely high eco-impacts, this turned out to be because they only ate fruit.
As Helen Breewood, research assistant at the Food Climate Research Network (FCRN) explains, imported fruit can be a problem because it’s often air-freighted into the UK. This increases its carbon footprint but bear in mind that ‘food miles’ alone aren’t always the best measure of sustainability; some intensively grown local produce can have a bigger footprint than imported food.
She adds that there are still a lot of knowledge gaps. For example, there is currently little research into fashionable ‘new’ vegan foods – such as jackfruit, often used to create vegan ‘pulled pork’ – so it’s hard to judge their environmental credentials.
What will a sustainable diet look like in the future?
What does all this mean for our future eating habits? Some experts point to the rise of technology and plant-based lab-grown or 3D-printed meats – coming soon to a restaurant near you. These have the potential to dramatically slash the environmental footprint of food; Bill Gates even calls them the ‘food of the future’.
Other experts believe that living creatures will continue to feature in our future diet, but they won’t be farm animals. Though not vegan, of course, insects are often rich in vitamins like iron and zinc, as well as essential fatty acids like omega-3. They’re also low in fat and a good source of protein.
Not a fan of pan-friend crickets? Not a problem. The EAT-Lancet Commission, led by Dr Walter Willett, professor of medicine at Harvard University, was created in 2019 to establish a diet that was good for both us and the planet. As the report notes, ‘food is the single strongest lever to optimize human health and environmental sustainability on Earth. However, food is currently threatening both people and planet.’
But the resulting ‘planetary health diet’ is not vegan. Dr Willett says, ‘Global consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes will have to double, and consumption of foods such as red meat and sugar will have to be reduced by more than 50%.’ In reality, this looks like a flexitarian diet; largely plant-based with very modest amounts of meat, fish and dairy.
Of course, you can choose not to eat meat, but this isn’t possible for everyone – some global populations depend on agropastoral livelihoods and animal protein from their livestock. For that reason, the Commission hasn’t recommended going vegan but instead suggests a whole raft of changes to the way we grow, transport, eat (and waste) all the food produced on the planet.
So, in short, yes – a vegan diet is better for the environment. But it’s not the only way we can help reduce carbon emissions, deforestation, water scarcity and decreasing biodiversity on the planet. Definitely something to consider next time you’re out shopping for dinner.
Paul Allen is a former BBC environmental editor and a director at Lark. Find him on Twitter @larkingly
For expert advice on everything from making products last longer, to reducing energy use and your carbon footprint – see sustainable living advice on Which.co.uk.
