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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Niki RustORCiD, Dr Beth ClarkORCiD, Professor Mark WhittinghamORCiD, Professor Philip McGowan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
Overwhelming evidence shows that overconsumption of meat is bad for human and environmental health and that moving towards a more plant-based diet is more sustainable. For instance, replacing beef with beans in the US could free up 42% of US cropland and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 334 mmt, accomplishing 75% of the 2020 carbon reduction target. We summarise the evidence on how overconsumption of meat affects social, environmental and economic sustainability. We summarise the social, environmental and economic effectiveness of a range of dietary interventions that have been tested to date. Because meat eating is embedded within complex cultural, economic, and political systems, dietary shifts to reduce overconsumption are unlikely to happen quickly and a suite of sustained, context-specific interventions is likely to work better than brief, one-dimensional approaches. We conclude with key actions needed by global leaders in politics, industry and the health sector that could help aide this dietary transformation to benefit people and the planet.
Author(s): Rust N, Ridding L, Ward C, Clark B, Kehoe L, Dora M, Whittingham MJ, McGowan P, Chaudhary A, Reynolds CJ, Trivedy C, West N
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Science of the Total Environment
Year: 2020
Volume: 718
Print publication date: 20/05/2020
Online publication date: 08/02/2020
Acceptance date: 07/02/2020
Date deposited: 10/02/2020
ISSN (print): 0048-9697
ISSN (electronic): 1879-1026
Publisher: Elsevier
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137208
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137208
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