Among the high-impact actions that we as individuals can take to reduce our environmental footprint—having one fewer child, living car free, taking fewer flights, eating a plant-based diet—shifting our food choices may be the easiest.  With our current global food system, the production of meat, dairy, eggs, and aquaculture use about 83% of the world’s farmland but provides only 18% of our calories.  As animal agriculture is one of the leading causes of greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, water pollution, and biodiversity loss, eating a plant-based diet—and thereby reducing the demand for and production of meat—can contribute to mitigating these dire environmental impacts of our inefficient global food system.  

Besides environmental reasons, there are other reasons to be vegan, too.  Billions of animals are slaughtered every year for human consumption.  On industrial farms, they live in filthy conditions, suffering a life of confinement and abuse.  What about eggs and milk? The dairy and egg industry exploit the female reproductive systems of cows and chickens, breeding and forcing them to produce more milk and eggs than their bodies would naturally provide.  Of little to no use for the dairy and egg industry, male calves and chicks are often killed immediately after birth.  

A global transition to a vegan diet could also alleviate hunger.  Globally, a third of croplands is used to grow livestock feed crops.  If humans consumed the crops directly rather than feeding them to farmed animals, 40% of all crops produced today would be enough to feed 9 billion people in 2050.  The land freed up from this global dietary shift could be reforested or used for human development.  

If you are concerned about the health implications of being vegan, a well-balanced plant-based diet has been associated with health benefits such as lower blood pressure and cholesterol, lower risks of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, some types of cancer, and total mortality.  A global adoption of a vegan diet is projected to result in 8.1 million avoided deaths per year in 2050.  

Still, while a plant-based diet has gained popularity in some countries such as the UK, Germany, and the U.S., global meat production continues to rise.  It is imperative to deconstruct the structural barriers to creating a more vegan world.  How are the myths that endorse eating animals perpetuated? Are there effective initiatives that promote widespread dietary changes?  From the Impossible Burger to Tofurky, what role might food technology and plant-based food innovation play in leading towards more sustainable food consumption?  What kind of policies could help spark the transition to more plant-based meals? Will our collective future be vegan?  

Answers to these questions have a profound effect on not only what we eat but also human and environmental health for decades to come.  For my beat, I will explore these questions, examining the misconceptions and controversies surrounding veganism while highlighting strategies to create a greener world in which more people can thrive on nourishing plant-based meals.