January is the time of year many people try a vegan diet – many for health reasons, many for animal welfare – but they may not realise that ditching the meat and dairy could also lead to cleaner air.
According to Oxford scientist Marcio Springmann and KU Leuven Research Fellow Toon Vandyck, one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions are represented by food systems.
They believe that ‘left unchecked, these emissions would probably add enough extra warming to take Earth’s average temperature beyond a 1.5°C rise in the 2060s’.
It is becoming better known that agriculture – notably animal farming – is a major source of air pollution.
Animal farming is particularly known to be a major source of ammonia emissions.
According to the scientists: “These emissions react with other pollutants to form fine particulate matter, which can cause health issues like cardiovascular disease, lung cancer and diabetes.”
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Chose local, sustainable plant-based foods for the highest environmental benefit. Photo © monkeybusinessimages via Getty Images
Cleaner air
They did a recent study The global and regional air quality impacts of dietary change, published in the journal Nature, which they say ‘reveals that shifting from current diets to healthier, more plant-based ones could prevent up to 236,000 premature deaths around the world and boost global GDP – simply by improving air quality’.
In other words, moving to a healthier, plant-based diets could also means cleaner air.
This is significant given that the World Health Organization, believes that 4 million premature deaths in 2019 were linked to outdoor air pollution.
They added: “Agriculture is responsible for roughly one-fifth of these deaths.
“We studied what would happen to air quality if people around the world shifted towards diets that are healthier and better for the environment. This includes flexitarian diets with less meat, vegetarian diets with no meat and vegan diets with no animal products.
“Our results show that shifting towards plant-based diets could significantly reduce air pollution.
“Areas with lots of livestock, such as Belgium, the Netherlands, northern Italy, southern China and the mid-west US (in Iowa, there are eight pigs for every person), would see particularly pronounced reductions in the concentration of fine particulate matter.”
They noted that ‘better air quality leads to better health’, hence the saving of lives if air pollution is improved.
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Vegan alternatives are kinder to animals, better for the environment and taste delicious! Photo © AscentXmedia vie Getty Images
Making a change
The researchers found that 100,000 premature deaths could be prevented globally by adopting flexitarian diets.
They added this to the health benefits people obtain from eating healthier, more plant-rich diets, saying ‘health benefits increase as people eat fewer animal products’.
“For example, if everyone went vegan, the number of premature deaths from air pollution could fall by more than 200,000. In Europe and North America, adopting vegan diets could reduce premature deaths from all air pollution by about 20 per cent,” they added.
Improving air pollution could also improve the economy they explained: “Research has found that air pollution lowers the productivity of workers in many different jobs, from farms to factories. For instance, studies have shown that air pollution affects the productivity of blueberry pickers and pear packers.”
Are you interested in how ditching animal products helps the planet? Find out The hard facts: How going vegan impacts the environment and our health
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