Environmental Benefits Of Plant-Based Meat

The plant-based meat has similar calories and protein to beef meat, so it makes sense to compare them face to face. 

The authors found that Plant-based meat has a carbon footprint of 3.5 kg CO2, while the same sized Beef meat has a footprint of 32,7 kg CO2.  Looking across four different impact categories, the Plant-based meat has 90% fewer greenhouse gas emissions, 46% less energy use, greater than 99% reduction in water footprint, and 93% less land use. Table 1 provides a comparison of the total impacts from plant-based meat and beef meat.

Table 1. The distribution of impacts across the 1kg plant-based meat and beef meat product chain

In other words, a kilogram of beef is responsible for the equivalent of the amount of CO2 emitted by the average European car every 250 kilometers, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days.

Production of the dominant ingredients – pea protein, canola oil, coconut oil – represent important contributions to greenhouse gas emissions, energy use and land, water use. Packaging also is an important contributor across all impact categories: the polypropylene tray is the largest contributor to packaging’s share of greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, and water use, whereas fiber production for cardboard and pallets make notable contributions to land use. Anyway switching to plant-based meat can have a positive impact on our environment.

http://css.umich.edu/sites/default/files/publication/CSS18-10.pdf

The most important conclusion for ourselves is that we have to eat much less meat and dairy products. This is one of the most effective ways to reduce our personal carbon footprint and to generally reduce our personal negative impact on the environment.

Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. (Albert Einstein).