Our food system – as new studies show – is responsible for around one third of global greenhouse gas emissions, primarily through the production or consumption of meat products. In Germany, about 10% of people now follow a vegetarian or vegan diet. Young and female people in particular are increasingly opting for a vegetarian or vegan diet, and the trend is still rising.
Who eats what?
Vegetarians abstain from meat and fish, but consume dairy products and eggs. Vegans eat a purely plant-based diet and this is also reflected in their entire lifestyle. They abstain from any products of animal origin, both in food and, for example, in their choice of clothing and cosmetics. The number of flexitarians in Germany – 44% in 2022 – is also on the rise and is significantly driving the development of plant-based alternative products. Flexitarians design their diets more flexibly and consciously consume less animal foods. The market now offers a wide range of substitute products, but also important basic products of a plant-based cuisine. In addition, there are now vegetarian-vegan cafés and restaurants with delicious dishes in every medium-sized city in Germany. The number of vegetarian and vegan cookbooks is also growing; so there is no shortage of delicious recipes.
The benefits of plant-based nutrition
There are many reasons why more and more people are opting for a meat-free diet: Animal welfare, active climate and environmental protection, the problem of world hunger, and health aspects all play a role. For example, studies show that meat-free diets contribute to healthier body weight, lower blood pressure and blood fat levels, and better kidney function. From a nutritional point of view, 300 to 600 grams of meat and sausage per week are sufficient for an adult person. Processed meat in particular – i.e. sausage and meat products – should only be eaten in moderate quantities. Numerous international studies have now shown that the consumption of processed meat increases the incidence of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, as well as diabetes.
Find out more about vegetarian nutrition here.
What meat consumption does to our climate
Meat consumption in 2022 was around 52 kg/capita, still 7.4 percent below the previous year’s figure. However, industrial animal husbandry still accounts for almost half of the greenhouse gas emissions in the food system. Cattle are by far the biggest climate polluters – around 87 percent of methane and nitrous oxide emissions are attributable to cattle farming. Livestock farming thus damages the climate more than the entire transport sector. Resource consumption for cattle farming is immense. Around 90 percent of the destruction of the tropical rainforest is due to factory farming – every two seconds, an area of forest the size of a soccer field is destroyed for new pasture and for growing animal feed. Around 50 percent of the world’s grain harvest and 90 percent of the global soybean harvest is fed to livestock. Potential food thus ends up in the trough instead of on the plate. If we gave the food grown for animals to people, we could feed the world’s 815 million hungry people 8.5 times over. Another important aspect: if all German citizens were to take just one meat-free day a week, 140 million fewer animals would be eaten each year, according to the Vegetarian Association, and the greenhouse gases from six million cars would be saved. These are figures that impress and motivate people to give up meat.
If we look at the CO2 emissions of the various diets, a conventional diet produces around 4,700 grams of CO2 per day. Vegetarian diets only cause about 3,500 grams and a vegan lifestyle causes about 2,800 grams of CO2 per day. As mentioned above, our current food system is responsible for about 1/3 of global greenhouse gas emissions. To counteract this, politicians are discussing various measures, such as taxes on meat products or, on the production side, taxing emissions from agricultural production (e.g. on over-fertilization and fertilization).
The idea is not to demonize meat and fish, but to make it something special “like in the old days” (keyword: Sunday roast). This is already a first step in the right direction.
