Which diet is better: moderately reduce meat consumption and eat more fruit, vegetables and wholegrain products, as recommended by the German Nutrition Society? Follow Germany’s southern neighbors’ example and eat more fish and seafood? Or even switch completely to a vegan diet? A new study by the University of Bonn (Germany) shows that the answer to these questions is not as clear-cut as one might think — depending on which impacts one closely looks. The results are published in the journal Science of The Total Environment.
950 kilograms of food and drink are consumed by every citizen in the EU annually — a sizeable quantity, the weight of a small car. Globally, food is responsible for a quarter of human greenhouse gas emissions. A large part of this is due to livestock farming: Animals convert only a small portion of the fed calories into meat. Ruminants also produce methane,…
