Oxford Study of 38,700 Farms Finds Even the Greenest Meat and Dairy Beaten by Plant Foods

Even the lowest-impact meat and dairy usually do more environmental damage than plant foods, the most comprehensive analysis of the food system yet has found. Low-impact beef producers still use 36 times more land and create six times more emissions than peas.

Joseph Poore of the University of Oxford and Thomas Nemecek of the Swiss research institute Agroscope consolidated data from 38,700 farms and 1,600 processors, packaging types and retailers, covering 40 major foods and five environmental indicators. Their study is published in Science.

A low-impact liter of cow's milk uses almost twice the land and creates almost double the emissions of an average liter of soya milk. Plant-based diets cut food's emissions by up to 73% depending on where you live, and would free about 3.1 billion hectares of farmland, a 76% reduction. Poore said in the university's release:

Food production creates immense environmental burdens, but these are not a necessary consequence of our needs. They can be significantly reduced by changing how we produce and what we consume.

In other words, what's on your plate matters more than which farm it came from. Choosing beans, lentils and tofu over beef is one of the simplest things you can do for the planet.

It backs up the Oxford research that found a global vegan diet would save more than 8 million lives by 2050 and cut emissions by 66%, and the 24 MEPs who demanded Europe shift to plant-based diets.

Every plant-based meal is a vote for the planet!