How much does going vegan help the climate?
ENVIRONMENT
Short answer
A vegan diet cuts food-related emissions by ~50-75%, land use by ~75%, and freshwater use by ~50% compared to an average omnivore diet.
ENVIRONMENT
The detail
Poore & Nemecek (Oxford 2018) analysed 40,000 farms across 119 countries and found dietary change is the single largest environmental action an individual can take.
Even reducing meat and dairy — flexitarian or Mediterranean-vegan hybrid — produces most of the benefit.
Choosing local, seasonal produce can further decrease your footprint, but the type of food you eat matters far more than how far it traveled. A 2020 report found that a pound of beef produces 30 times more CO2 than a pound of wheat. By opting for plant-based meals, you are directly reducing the demand for intensive factory farming, which is a major contributor to global warming and localized environmental degradation.
Source: Poore & Nemecek, Science 2018;360(6392):987-992.
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