Time to ditch the burgers? Eating meat creates FOUR times more greenhouse gases than being vegan, study finds

Summer vacation is just around the corner, which normally would mean there’s never been a better time to fire up the barbeque and line it with beef burgers.

But a new study shows you might want to swap them for meat-free alternatives if you want to do your part to save the planet.

Experts from the University of Oxford say that eating just 100 grams of meat a day – less than a single burger – causes four times more greenhouse gas emissions than a vegan diet.

The researchers now want swift policy action from the government and organizations to bring about “nutritional shifts away from animal foods.”

Previous studies have already suggested there are personal health benefits of dropping a meat diet, including a reduced risk of heart disease.

The new study was led by experts from the Livestock, Environment and People (LEAP) project at the University of Oxford, which works to understand the “health, environmental, social and economic impacts of meat and dairy production.”

“Our food choices have a major impact on the planet,” said lead author Peter Scarborough, a professor of public health at Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences and LEAP project investigator.

“Our results, which use data from more than 38,000 farms in more than 100 countries, show that diets high in meat content have the greatest impact on many key environmental indicators, including climate change and biodiversity loss.

“Reducing the amount of meat and dairy products in your diet can make a big difference to your nutritional footprint.”

Scientists have long talked about the huge environmental footprint of the human love of meat, fish and dairy products, especially beef.

Animal agriculture contributes to global warming because of methane, nitrous oxide and carbon emissions from livestock and their supply chains.

In addition, deforestation to make way for livestock farming reduces the amount of trees that absorb carbon dioxide.

The authors stress the need for “dietary changes” if we are to stay within “safe environmental limits for greenhouse gas emissions.”

If these emissions get too high, the result could be rising sea levels and scorching temperatures that threaten life on Earth.

For the study, Professor Scarborough and colleagues linked nutritional data from 55,504 people with data on the environmental impacts of the food they eat.

The individuals – who completed food frequency questionnaires – were either meat eaters, vegetarians, vegans or pescatarians.

Meat eaters were divided into three categories depending on whether they followed a high-meat diet (more than 100 g of meat per day on average), a medium-meat diet (between 50 g and 100 g) or a low-meat diet (less than 50 g).

For reference, a single beef burger you might buy as part of a multipack at the supermarket is usually just over 100g each.

Dietary information was linked to food-level data on greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water use, potential loss of biodiversity and the risk of ‘eutrophication’ – increased nutrients in waters due to CO2 leading to fish kills.

The researchers found that the dietary impact of vegans on greenhouse gas emissions was 25 percent that of the big meat eaters.

This means that eating 100 grams of meat per day or more causes an average of four times more greenhouse gases than being vegan.

Similarly, the dietary impact of vegans was 25.1 percent for land use, 46 percent for water use, 27 percent for eutrophication, and 34 percent for biodiversity, compared to big meat eaters.

Interestingly, researchers saw a 30 percent difference between high meat diets and low meat diets for most measures of environmental damage.

This suggests that significantly reducing the amount of meat you eat can help the planet immensely, even if you don’t give up completely.

However, a vegan diet has consistently been found to be the best diet when it comes to its many environmental impacts: carbon emissions, land use, water use, eutrophication potential, and biodiversity.

The new study, published in the journal Nature Foodwhich is now a large collection of studies that have urged people to eat less meat.

A latest study found that cutting all meat from our diets over the next 15 years would reduce global carbon emissions by as much as 68 percent.

Another said meat consumption should be reduced to the equivalent of two burgers a week to avoid a climate crisis.

Yet another British report advocated serving vegan food in schools, prisons and hospitals to increase its popularity with the general public.

Professor Scarborough and colleagues point out that the UK is now legally committed to a 78 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 compared to 1990.

That is why it may be crucial that British citizens take their responsibility to reduce the amount of meat they eat.

“If the government is to meet its ambitious carbon reduction targets, rapid progress needs to be made across all sectors, including implementing measures to encourage consumers to change diets,” the team concluded.