UN-Backed Report: Food System Is the Main Driver of Biodiversity Loss, Plant-Heavy Diets Needed

The way the world produces food is the primary driver of biodiversity loss, and the first fix is a move toward plant-heavy diets, according to a major new report. Agriculture alone is the identified threat to 24,000 of the 28,000 species at risk of extinction, or 86%.

The report, Food System Impacts on Biodiversity Loss, comes from the London policy institute Chatham House, supported by the UN Environment Programme and Compassion in World Farming, and was launched today. UNEP says it sets out three actions: changing global dietary patterns, protecting and setting aside land for nature, and farming in a more nature-friendly way.

Diet comes first because of the outsized footprint of animal farming on land and wildlife. A shift to plant-heavy diets, coupled with less food waste, would reduce pressure on land, benefit health and help reduce the risk of pandemics. The more dietary change happens, the more room there is for the other two actions.

The biggest threats to biodiversity arise from exploitative land use - converting natural habitats to agriculture and farming land intensively - and these are driven by the economic demand for producing ever more calorie-rich, but nutritionally poor, food from fewer and fewer commodities grown at scale.

That is Professor Tim Benton, research director at Chatham House, quoted in the UNEP press release. Philip Lymbery of Compassion in World Farming added that "our diets must become more plant-based, healthy and sustainable."

It echoes the Oxford study of 38,700 farms, which found plant foods beat even the lowest-impact meat and dairy, and last year's UN report on animal protein and pandemics.

Every bean burger is a little more room for wildlife.