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UN Urges Global Move to Meat and Dairy-Free Diet
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/02/un-report-meat-free-diet
Published on Wednesday, June 2, 2010

   Lesser consumption of animal products is necessary to save the world from 
the worst impacts of climate change, UN report says. A global shift towards a 
vegan diet is vital to save the world from hunger, fuel poverty and the worst 
impacts of climate change, a UN report said today.
   As the global population surges towards a predicted 9.1 billion people by 
2050, western tastes for diets rich in meat and dairy products are 
unsustainable, says the report from United Nations Environment Programme's 
(UNEP) international panel of sustainable resource management.
   It says: "Impacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially 
due to population growth increasing consumption of animal products. Unlike 
fossil fuels, it is difficult to look for alternatives: people have to eat. A 
substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial 
worldwide diet change, away from animal products."
   Professor Edgar Hertwich, the lead author of the report, said: "Animal 
products cause more damage than [producing] construction minerals such as 
sand or cement, plastics or metals. Biomass and crops for animals are as 
damaging as [burning] fossil fuels."
   The recommendation follows advice last year that a vegetarian diet was 
better for the planet from Lord Nicholas Stern, former adviser to the Labour 
government on the economics of climate change. Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of 
the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has also urged 
people to observe one meat-free day a week to curb carbon emissions. The 
panel of experts ranked products, resources, economic activities and 
transport according to their environmental impacts. Agriculture was on a par 
with fossil fuel consumption because both rise rapidly with increased 
economic growth, they said.
   Ernst von Weizsaecker, an environmental scientist who co-chaired the 
panel, said: "Rising affluence is triggering a shift in diets towards meat 
and dairy products - livestock now consumes much of the world's crops and by 
inference a great deal of freshwater, fertilisers and pesticides."
   Both energy and agriculture need to be "decoupled" from economic growth 
because environmental impacts rise roughly 80% with a doubling of income, the 
report found.
   The panel, which drew on numerous studies including the Millennium 
ecosystem assessment, cites the following pressures on the environment as 
priorities for governments around the world: climate change, habitat change, 
wasteful use of nitrogen and phosphorus in fertilisers, over-exploitation of 
fisheries, forests and other resources, invasive species, unsafe drinking 
water and sanitation, lead exposure, urban air pollution and occupational 
exposure to particulate matter.
   Agriculture, particularly meat and dairy products, accounts for 70% of 
global freshwater consumption, 38% of the total land use and 19% of the 
world's greenhouse gas emissions, says the report, which has been launched to 
coincide with UN World Environment day on Saturday.
   Last year the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation said that food 
production would have to increase globally by 70% by 2050 to feed the world's 
surging population. The panel says that efficiency gains in agriculture will 
be overwhelmed by the expected population growth.