Looking for a healthier, less expensive diet that benefits the planet?

An American research institute has found that a significant drop in global meat consumption would make Planet Earth a much better place by 2050. Unhealthy diets are the main cause of early deaths in the developed world while the production of animal source food accounts for up to 25% of all greenhouse gas emissions and 70 percent of Earth’s drinking water is being used by agriculture.

You diet has a direct affect on your health and on our planet’s future.

Researchers at the University of Oxford have developed four different scenarios to model the future of mankind by the year 2050:
- Scenario #1: Business as usual.
- Scenario #2: People start to follow general dietary recommendations and consume 15% less calories and 50% less meat while increasing their vegetable and fruit intake by 25%.
- Scenario #3: The world’s population becomes vegetarian
- Scenario #4: The world’s population becomes vegan

Take Scenario #2 – i.e. a healthier diet becomes the norm:

• Global health care costs would drop by $700-1000 billion
• 1 million less deaths per year
• Greenhouse gas emissions of the food production chain would drop by 29%
• Global wealth would increase by $750 million

In Scenario #4:

• 1 million less premature deaths per year worldwide
• Greenhouse gas emissions of the food production chain would drop by a staggering 70%

Turning everybody vegan is not the objective – says the leader of the research – but we have to consider that climate change is having an impact on our food production capacities and technology on its own won’t be enough to help us adapt to those changes. However, eating healthy food that’s also sustainable to produce would be a huge step in the right direction.

Source: http://goo.gl/oqO05E