Plant-based diets can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and
the amount of land, water, and fertilizers used for agriculture. As a
significant percentage of crops around the world are used to feed
livestock rather than humans, evidence shows that increasing the practice
of a plant-based diet may contribute toward minimizing climate change and
biodiversity loss. While soy cultivation is a major driver of
deforestation in the Amazon basin, the vast majority of soy crops are used
for livestock consumption rather than human consumption.
A 2020 study found that the climate change mitigation effects of shifting
worldwide food production and consumption to plant-based diets, which are
mainly composed of foods that require only a small fraction of the land
and CO2 emissions required for meat and dairy, could offset CO2 emissions
equal to those of past 9 to 16 years of fossil fuel emissions