The plant versus meat controversy has been on another dimension when environmental degradation and climate change are concerned, both of which adversely affect human health and livestock.

 

Though it is still a debatable topic for its effects on human health, incorporating nutrients with alt-protein can significantly reduce the environmental footprint. The following are the reasons why such products are beneficial to the environment –

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1. Conservation of water:

 

Alternative meats which involve the usage of plant and cultured cells require less water to clean, as compared to animals, and need less space to grow. By shifting the market to plant-based foods, we can conserve water to a large extent.

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2. Reduction of carbon footprint:

 

According to the recent life-cycle analysis of Beyond burgers and Impossible Burgers in the United States, meat alternatives have an 89% lesser carbon footprint than actual beef.

Statistics show that this is lowering the carbon emissions with +3.2 and +3.5 CO2 emissions /kg product compared to animal beef, where it is +10.5 CO2 emissions/ kg product.  Several parameters, such as the animal model, the geographical location of raising cattle, and greenhouse gas emission potential, also affect the same.

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3. Livestock and climate change:

 

Such systems that use land management practices like rotational grazing—where lands are allowed to recover after a grazing period correctly—and harvest grazing suggest that the amounts of carbon sequestered within the soil entirely offset the ruminants' greenhouse gas emissions, leading to a net negative carbon footprint.

 

By having livestock participate in carbon cycling by spending their lives on well-managed pastures—grooming and fertilizing vegetation and soil—such production systems have the potential to mitigate global climate change while ensuring a degree of food security.

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4. Antibiotic resistance:

 

Meat alternatives do not carry identical health risks because of contamination and antibiotic resistance that animal-based meat does. Animal agriculture carries the bulk of foodborne pathogens, and therefore the extensive use of antibiotics in domestic animals is significantly increasing the speed of antibiotic resistance, posing a dire threat to human health. Rather, they offer a tasty and more nutritious option without these negative implications.

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This paper by Robin R. White et al covers the important nuances of nutritional and greenhouse gas impacts of removing animals from agriculture.