Quantcast
ZME Science
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science
No Result
View All Result
Home Environment Environmental Issues

Diet With A Little Meat Uses Less Land Than Most Vegetarian Diets

Mihai Andrei by Mihai Andrei
January 29, 2013
in Environmental Issues, Home science
Reading Time: 2 mins read
A A
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterSubmit to Reddit

 

The number of people that our planet supports is growing fast [later edit: 7th billion baby comes with a warning], and for the diet that every man has there is a land surface which provides his food. Some types of diet require more land, some less; a low-fat vegetarian diet is very efficient and it does not need a big surface to provide the nutrients – this is nothing new.

ADVERTISEMENT

But adding some dairy products and a limited amount of meat may actually increase this efficiency, Cornell researchers suggest.This was pointed out by a study which concludes that if everyone in New York state followed a low-fat vegetarian diet, the state could directly support almost 50 percent more people, or about 32 percent of its population, agriculturally. With the current diet which is very high-meat and high-dairy the state is able to support directly only 22 percent of its population.

Sorry to interrupt, but you should really...

...Join the ZME newsletter for amazing science news, features, and exclusive scoops. More than 40,000 subscribers can't be wrong.

   

This study is very important because it is the first study to to examine the land requirements of diets. They looked at 42 diets with the same number of calories and a core of grains, fruits, vegetables and dairy products with foods which are produced in New York state and found a fivefold difference between the two extremes.

“A person following a low-fat vegetarian diet, for example, will need less than half (0.44) an acre per person per year to produce their food,” said Christian Peters, M.S. ’02, Ph.D. ’07, a Cornell postdoctoral associate in crop and soil sciences and lead author of the research. “A high-fat diet with a lot of meat, on the other hand, needs 2.11 acres.”. “Surprisingly, however, a vegetarian diet is not necessarily the most efficient in terms of land use,” said Peters. That is because fruits vegetables and grains must be grown on high-quality cropland, he explained.

There are not so many crops. Meat and dairy products are supported by lower quality, but more widely available, land. “In order to reach the efficiency in land use of moderate-fat, vegetarian diets, our study suggests that New Yorkers would need to limit their annual meat and egg intake to about 2 cooked ounces a day,” Peters said. The average American ate approximately 5.8 ounces of meat and eggs a day in 2005.

ADVERTISEMENT

Tags: vegetarian diet
ShareTweetShare
Mihai Andrei

Mihai Andrei

Andrei's background is in geophysics, and he's been fascinated by it ever since he was a child. Feeling that there is a gap between scientists and the general audience, he started ZME Science -- and the results are what you see today.

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • More

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.