Would it be possible to feed the world if everyone was vegetarian?
Check out this answer from Consensus:
The research suggests that a global shift to a vegetarian diet could indeed provide enough food to feed the world’s population, potentially up to 10 billion people. This shift would also bring significant environmental and health benefits, contributing to more sustainable agricultural practices and better health outcomes globally.
The question of whether the world could be fed if everyone adopted a vegetarian diet is a significant one, especially in the context of global food security, environmental sustainability, and population growth. This synthesis examines the potential of a global vegetarian diet to meet the nutritional needs of the world’s population based on insights from multiple research papers.
Key Insights
- Sufficient Food Supply with Vegetarian Diet:
- If everyone adopted a vegetarian diet and no food were wasted, there would be enough food to feed 10 billionpeople1.
- Environmental and Sustainability Benefits:
- A global shift to vegetarianism could lead to more environmentally sustainable agricultural practices, reducing the strain on agricultural lands and potentially reversing environmentaldestruction1.
- Health and Global Benefits:
- Adopting a vegetarian diet offers multiple personal health benefits and global benefits, including improved health outcomes and reduced environmentalimpact2.
Would it be possible to feed the world if everyone was vegetarian?
C N Hewitt has answered Near Certain
An expert from Lancaster University in Atmospheric Science
Unless there is a disastrous failure in crop production, it is near certain that there is enough food in the world to feed everyone a vegetarian diet. This would require the human-edible food currently fed to farmed animals to be eaten directly by humans. Not only that, but the current production of crops is sufficient to provide enough food for the projected global population of 9.7 billion in 2050 with a vegan (but not vegetarian) diet. To achieve this, very significant changes to the socio-economic conditions of many (ensuring access to the global food supply) and radical changes to the dietary choices of most (replacing almost all meat and dairy with plant-based alternatives, and greater acceptance of human-edible crops currently fed to animals, especially maize, as directly-consumed human food) would be required.
Current industrialised meat and dairy production, which relies on feeding 34% of human-edible crop calories to animals globally, is highly inefficient in terms of the provision of human nutrition, since it reduces the energy, protein, iron and zinc supplies potentially available to humans from crops, and is incompatible with a sustainable global food system as currently conceived.
We arrive at these conclusions through a quantitative analysis of global and regional food supply to reveal the flows of calories, protein and the micro-nutrients vitamin A, iron and zinc, from production through to human consumption and other end points (Berners-Lee et al, 2018, Current global food production is sufficient to meet human nutritional needs in 2050 provided there is radical societal adaptation. Elem Sci Anth, 6(1), p.52. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.310).
FAQs
Check out this answer from Consensus:
Would the world survive if everyone was vegetarian? ›
If we all gave up meat, around eight million fewer people would die each year, as a result of lower levels of heart disease, strokes and cancer. But most crops have lower levels of micronutrients per calorie than meat – especially vitamins A, B12 and D, and some essential fatty acids.
Would there be enough food if everyone was vegetarian? ›
Yes. We feed so much grain to animals in order to fatten them up for consumption that if we all became vegetarians, we could produce enough food to feed the entire world. In the U.S., animals are fed more than 80 percent of the corn we grow and more than 95 percent of the oats.
Can vegetarianism solve world hunger? ›
World hunger is a multi-faceted problem that requires a multi-faceted solution. As we've learned, the consequences of animal agriculture impact each of these facets in some way. While veganism alone cannot solve world hunger, world hunger cannot be solved without a global shift to plant-based diets.
What will happen if everyone becomes vegetarian Quora? ›
If people stopped eating meat, the likely result in the long term would be a moderate reduction in greenhouse gasses and other kinds of pollution. Herds of livestock produce a lot of methane, a short-lived but potent greenhouse gas, and in the US a lot of farmland is given over to growing feed crops for animals.
What would happen if all humans were vegetarian? ›
The effect on health is mixed, too. Springmann's computer model study showed that, should everyone go vegetarian by 2050, we would see a global mortality reduction of 6-10%, thanks to a lessening of coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke and some cancers.
What would happen if we all went vegan? ›
More people going vegan will result in less demand for meat. Farmers will adjust by breeding, raising, and slaughtering fewer animals. Similarly, more vegan products will show up in both mainstream stores and health food stores and more farmers will switch to growing things like quinoa, spelt, or kale.
Is it possible to feed the world without meat? ›
Unless there is a disastrous failure in crop production, it is near certain that there is enough food in the world to feed everyone a vegetarian diet. This would require the human-edible food currently fed to farmed animals to be eaten directly by humans.
Who lives longer a vegetarian or a meat eater? ›
For several decades now, research has consistently found that a vegetarian diet, that is mainly made up of fruits and vegetables, nuts, legumes and wholegrains, can reduce your risk of major diseases and help you live longer1–5.
What would happen if all animals were vegetarian? ›
So if all animals on Earth only ate plants, millions of carnivore and omnivore species would die out. That's a problem, because meat-eating animals play an important role on our planet. Take, for example, scavengers such as vultures, ravens, dogs and flies.
“It would be a huge net win for the environment,” Dutkiewicz said. By one estimate, a complete phaseout of meat over 15 years would cut as much as one-third of all methane emissions and two-thirds of all nitrous oxide emissions. Water use would fall drastically. Biodiversity loss would slow.
Why can't we solve world hunger? ›
Unfortunately, hunger is a common side-effect of war, conflict, and political warfare. From food being used to gain power (votes in exchange for food,) to conflict zones where access to food is used as warfare, and there are innocent by-standers affected. Conflict makes food security a great challenge.
Does not eating meat help the planet? ›
Eating less meat can help reduce pressure on forests and land used to grow animal feed, which in turn protects biodiversity, the earth's ecosystems, and people living in poverty who are bearing the brunt of climate change. Eating less meat means eating foods that are plant-based rather than those that are animal-based.
What would happen if you never ate meat? ›
Diets that limit or exclude meat have been linked to weight loss and a reduced risk of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Yet, this risk reduction depends on overall diet quality. Also, plant-based diets can lack important nutrients if you don't plan them well.
Should all humans become vegetarian? ›
According to the American Dietetic Association, "appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases."
Will people be healthier if they become vegetarian? ›
Health benefits of a vegetarian diet
A well-balanced vegetarian or vegan diet can provide many health benefits, such as a reduced risk of chronic diseases, including: obesity. coronary heart disease. hypertension (high blood pressure)
Can humans survive on a vegetarian diet? ›
With planning, a vegetarian diet can meet the needs of people of all ages, as well as people who are pregnant or breastfeeding. The key is to be aware of your nutritional needs so that you plan a diet that meets them.
What would happen if everyone stopped eating meat? ›
By one estimate, a complete phaseout of meat over 15 years would cut as much as one-third of all methane emissions and two-thirds of all nitrous oxide emissions. Water use would fall drastically. Biodiversity loss would slow.
Does being vegetarian help the earth? ›
In addition to having the advantage of immediately reducing global warming, shifting away from methane-emitting food sources is much easier than cutting carbon dioxide7: First, greenhouse gas reductions through a vegetarian diet are limitless.
