- [Narrator] Is vegan meat more efficient than animal meat?
- What constitutes a piece of meat from its composition,
where's the animal getting that from
and where else can you get it from?
- And what we were optimizing for
was the one that performed best in food.
- [Narrator] For thousands of years,
humans have made meat from animals.
It didn't seem possible that meat could come
from anything but an animal,
but now on many restaurant menus
and supermarket shelves, you can find bleeding,
plant-based burgers, chicken-free nuggets,
and meatless sausages.
- [Colonel Sanders] It looks like scrumptious chicken
and tastes like scrumptious chicken,
but it's not chicken, it's made of plants!
- [Narrator] The meat industry is innovating and evolving,
just like humans.
Beef-based quarter pounders have turned
into P-protein patties.
The latest burgers offer consumers
so much more than their predecessor.
They're better for your health,
they're better for the planet,
and they're better for the animals.
Still, animal meat is prevalent,
but this too could soon change.
Vegan meat uses less water, less land,
and it saves millions of lives,
from bees, to fish, to humans.
Unlike beef, vegan meat is healthier for your body,
and it isn't destroying the rainforest
and the oceans either.
Here are five reasons why vegan meat
is more efficient than animal meat.
Number one, it uses fewer resources.
Animal agriculture uses significant amounts
of land, water and energy.
In comparison, growing crops for vegan food
is much more efficient.
Unlike traditional burgers, which are often made with beef,
vegan burgers are made with ingredients
like peas or soy.
Producing even the lowest-impact beef
requires 36 times more land than peas.
Soy gets a bad reputation for its environmental impact.
The industry is causing widespread deforestation.
But the vast majority, some 70% of all soy,
is grown to feed livestock,
contributing to the sector's land and resource use.
If everyone on the planet,
some seven billion people went vegan,
global farmland use would drop by 75%.
This decline would free up landmass the size of Australia,
China, the EU and the US combined.
We could grow more and healthier food for more people.
Rearing animals for meat contributes to desertification.
This is the loss of biological productivity in dry lands.
Overgrazing is one cause.
Too many animals in one area
can make it difficult for plants to grow back.
Deforestation is another.
Sometimes whole areas of forest are burnt down
to make room for livestock.
- [Narrator] Forest fires are set on purpose
after loggers are done chopping down trees
and harvesting the lumber,
the remaining vegetation is usually burnt.
This is done by people hoping to make a profit off the land,
by selling it to farmers and ranchers.
- [Narrator] With deforestation
comes the loss of biodiversity.
Forests are home to around 60%
of the world's plant and animal species.
If animal agriculture keeps expanding,
it will have devastating consequences for wildlife.
The recent fires in the Amazon were linked
to cattle ranchers clearing land for their herds.
- This is part of a trend, this increasing forest loss.
Now we have a new government in there
that is overtly pro-expansion and use of the Amazon forest
for development.
- [Narrator] The rainforest is home
to the largest collection
of living plant and animal species.
One in 10 known animal species
live in the Amazon rainforest,
including roughly 2.5 million insect species,
tens of thousands of plants,
and approximately 2000 birds and mammals.
Many of these species are endangered.
Vegan farming on the other hand uses far less land,
and in many cases, it actually benefits the land.
Beans, peas, and oats, which are often used
to make different vegan meats, milk, and cheese products,
are good for the soil.
Field peas and fava beans for example
are nitrogen-fixing legume plants,
which help to fertilize the soil.
Oats provide soil erosion control,
and when planted alongside legumes,
they can improve their productivity.
Oats also have a zero water footprint.
A meat-based diet not only requires more land,
but it also uses more water.
Research published in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
stated that a meat-based diet
requires 14 times more water than a vegetarian one.
A report published
by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
stated that more than 15000 liters of water
are required to produce one kilogram of beef.
It takes more than 10000 liters
to produce one kilogram of mutton,
and more than 5000 to produce pork.
This is notable, given the water shortages
occurring around the world.
Experts told The Guardian last year
that England could run out of water within 25 years
if we don't act soon to preserve it.
The water requirements of plant-based food
are generally much lower.
To produce one kilogram of potatoes,
just 287 liters of water are used.
Banana, cabbage, and tomato require 790,
237, and 214 liters respectively.
- The statistic that really comes to mind for me
is this 80% of agricultural land in the United States
being devoted either through grazing
or through growing feed to feeding animals
who are then slaughtered and converted into meat.
- [Narrator] Growing crops for vegan food
cuts out a very resource-intensive step, raising livestock.
Instead of growing crops to feed animals,
we can now transform those crops
straight into meaty vegan products
that contain the same amount of protein as animal meat.
- If you could snap your fingers,
and just vaporize that industry,
which I would do in a heartbeat if I could,
the recovery of plant biomass on that land
would actually start to lower atmospheric CO2 concentration,
something people don't even contemplate as a possibility.
- [Narrator] Number two, it produces
fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
When speaking about climate change and emissions,
most people are quick to point the finger at transportation.
We shun celebrities who fly too often, praise electric cars,
and applaud those who choose to cycle or walk.
But livestock has an even larger impact
on the environment than the transportation sector.
According to the United Nations Environment Program,
the greenhouse gas footprint of animal agriculture
rivals that of every car, truck, bus, ship,
airplane and rocket ship combined.
To produce half a pound of beef,
the emissions output is equivalent
to driving a car 9.8 miles.
To produce a half a pound of potatoes,
the emissions equate to driving the same car 0.17 miles.
Beef production is to blame for six times more
greenhouse gas emissions than peas,
a primary ingredient in vegan meat products
like the beyond burger.
On average, a cow releases
between 70 and 120 kilograms of methane a year.
- A cow can basically fill up
a 55 gallon garbage bag full of methane every day.
One cow's not a problem, but now we have 1.5 billion of 'em.
And it's an incredibly inefficient way of producing food.
- They're responsible for nearly a 10th
of all human-related emissions.
Some of that's from dairy cows,
but most of it comes from cows raised for their beef.
- [Narrator] Methane's global warming potential
is 23 times that of CO2.
Lamb also has a high carbon footprint.
Some believe it's even higher than beef.
According to the Environmental Working Group,
this is because lambs produce less edible meat than cows.
In 2018, the World Wildlife Fund
stated that lamb cawl, a Welsh stew,
had one of the worst carbon footprints
of all of the UK's most popular meals.
Just one bowl of lamb cawl produces 5.9 kilos
of CO2 emissions.
This is the same as boiling a kettle 258 times,
or driving 31 miles in a car.
Seafood also produces greenhouse gases.
The carbon footprint of shellfish and crustaceans
are particularly high.
For every kilogram of shrimp produced on land
converted from mangrove forest,
1600 kilograms of greenhouse gases are emitted.
According to Forest News, mangrove forests
are critical for carbon storage.
In some cases, mangrove ecosystems
can store up to 98% of carbon stocks underground.
When these mangroves are cut down for shrimp ponds
in the tropics, all of that carbon
is released into the atmosphere.
Many brands are making vegan seafood
with plant-based ingredients.
Good Catch uses a six legume blend
to make its vegan tuna.
Number three, it costs fewer animal lives.
Every year, 200 million land animals are killed for food.
This amounts to around 72 billion every year.
That's not even counting fish and other seafood.
Animal agriculture is causing other animals
to lose their lives, too,
when land is cleared to make room
for animals raised for human consumption.
In the fishing industry,
billions of marine animals including endangered fish,
whales, sea turtles, dolphins and seals,
are caught and killed unintentionally.
These animals are known as by catch,
and it's estimated they make up
40% of the world's total catch,
equating to 63 billion pounds a year.
But it goes even further.
Greenhouse gases in our atmosphere,
emitted by industries including animal agriculture,
trap heat, rising temperatures or making it difficult
for even more species to survive.
We could be in the middle of the sixth mass extinction
in the Earth's history, and according to some experts,
we already are.
In the last 450 million years,
there have been five mass extinctions.
Each of those were caused by natural disasters.
But this one is man-made.
A study published in the journal proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences
refers to a biological annihilation.
As species go extinct,
the impact on the planet is disastrous.
Mass coral die offs, for example,
are catastrophic for underwater life.
The tropical fish that rely on them for survival
will also die out, and the entire ecosystem crashes.
A number of insect species are also at risk,
including pollinators like bees.
Bees are one of the most important species on the planet,
and they are integral to human survival as well.
- And bees globally are the most important pollinator.
All of our favorite fruits require pollination,
apples, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries.
So there's a global concern that pollinators are in decline,
and especially some of our most efficient pollinators
like bumblebees, many of them are in decline.
- [Narrator] Pesticides, habitat loss,
disease and climate change are leading causes
of their declining population.
- Climate change is altering plant phenology,
and if it's altering bee phenology at different rates,
we could have a situation where plants are available,
but bees are not active.
- [Narrator] Number four, it costs fewer human lives.
Vegan meat isn't just better
for the animals and the environment,
it's better for human health as well.
Meat consumption, particularly red and processed meat,
is linked to a higher risk of a number of diseases,
including heart disease.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause
of death in the US.
In 2016, it was responsible for more than 840,000 deaths.
According to the American College of Cardiology,
from 2006 to 2016, death rates from cardiovascular disease
increased 18.6%.
Studies have shown that a plant-based diet
can improve heart health.
A 2018 American Heart Association study
found that cutting out animal products
lowers the risk of heart disease more
than the AHA recommended diet.
The eight week long study analyzed 100 participants.
They followed either a plant-based diet,
or the AHA recommended diet,
which includes lean meat, fish, and low fat dairy.
The plant-based group saw
the biggest reduction in inflammation,
which is associated with an increased risk of heart disease.
According to another AHA study, a plant-based diet
may lower the risk of death from a heart attack by 19%.
The study analyzed four dietary patterns
in middle aged American adults,
who were followed up with from 1987 to 2016.
Those who ate more healthy plant foods
received higher scores for reduced risk.
Conversely, those who ate the most animal foods
received lower scores.
A plant-based diet could also reduce the risk of cancer.
One 2018 study analyzed the data
of more than 120,000 people,
collected over the course of 26 years.
It found that those who ate the most inflammatory foods,
such as processed and red meats,
were 37% more likely to develop colon cancer.
They were also 70% more likely to develop rectal cancer.
Some researchers have suggested
that placing a tax on red and processed meat
could save thousands of lives.
A 2018 study revealed that 6000 UK deaths a year
could be prevented with such a tax.
Cancer Research UK agrees that lives could be saved
if meat consumption dropped.
It announced in 2018 that there could be
up to 8800 fewer cancer cases if everyone in Britain
stopped eating red and processed meat.
Number five, it costs less money.
Shifting away from meat or even taxing it
could also save consumers and governments money.
A meat tax could reduce healthcare costs
by 30.7 billion pounds,
according to one 2018 PLOS One study.
Lead researcher Dr. Marco Springman
said in a statement, the consumption of red
and processed meat exceeds recommended levels
in most high and middle income countries.
This is having significant impacts
not only on personal health, but also on healthcare systems,
which are taxpayer funded in many countries.
He added that the UK's economy
would also perform better, as it is currently
losing its labor force due to ill health,
and care for family members who fall ill.
In 2019, British consumers saved 6.7 billion pounds
by eating inexpensive plant-based foods
instead of animal products.
Researchers estimate that more than 12 million meat eaters
consumed less pork, beef, lamb, and chicken in 2019,
compared to previous years.
That shift saved them around 550 pounds each.
The research was commissioned by the popular
British vegetarian meat brand Linda McCartney's,
and surveyed 2000 adult consumers.
It revealed that for 28% of participants,
saving money is a big motivator.
51% believe that meat is too expensive,
and 44% think that a meat-free lifestyle
is more affordable than ever.
As demand rises, it's also going to get cheaper
to produce and buy vegan food.
Liz Spect, PhD, a senior scientist
at The Good Food Institute,
believes price parity with vegan meat
and its animal-based counterpart is just around the corner.
She explained, "Industrial animal agriculture
"has been operating and optimizing
"at a global scale for decades,
"yet it is still inherently more efficient
"to make meat directly from plants,
"rather than feeding our crops to animals,
"then eating a part of the animal.
"It's all but inevitable that the plant-based meat industry
"will eventually be cost competitive with conventional meat.
"When vegan meat brands have a bigger share
"of the overall meat market,
"production methods will evolve,"
explained Spect, "Increasing efficiency,
"and inevitably reducing cost."
Why do you eat vegan food?
Do you agree that vegan meat
is more efficient than animal meat?
Let us know in the comments below.
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