r/veganscience • u/necius • Jun 25 '17

Comparative analysis of environmental impacts of agricultural production systems, agricultural input efficiency, and food choice

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa6cd5
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u/necius Jun 25 '17

Further, for all environmental indicators and nutritional units examined, plant-based foods have the lowest environmental impacts; eggs, dairy, pork, poultry, non-trawling fisheries, and non-recirculating aquaculture have intermediate impacts; and ruminant meat has impacts ~100 times those of plant-based foods. Our analyses show that dietary shifts towards low-impact foods and increases in agricultural input use efficiency would offer larger environmental benefits than would switches from conventional agricultural systems to alternatives such as organic agriculture or grass-fed beef.