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Sustainable Eating

Skyler O'Kelley

Feb 27, 2025

One of the best things you can do for the environment is to change your diet. There are so many ways to do that though! Veganism, vegetarianism, plant-based, pescatarian, what does it all mean?! Well in today’s Digest, I’ll go over what each of these diets mean, their environmental impact, and give you some tips about how your diet can save the planet.

It’s important to remember that not all of these diets will fit with your lifestyle. You may not have time, money, or the religious freedom to participate. If that’s the case, don’t worry. You can mix and match these to fit your needs, it just takes a little research to determine what’s best for you. Keep that in mind as we dive in!


Let’s define each diet first, then get into comparing them. Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products (dairy, eggs, gelatin, etc.) in all aspects of life. This is different from plant-based diets which only focus on removing animal products from what you eat. Vegetarian diets consist of eating no meat, including fish. And finally, pescatarian diets allow for fish to be consumed, but no other meat products.

Now let’s look into the environmental impacts. Vegan diets are the most environmentally friendly. This is because animal products require a lot of resources to farm. Everything from cropland used to raise and feed the animals, to the delivery and waste products, there is a lot needed to keep up with demand. Because of this, choosing to remove animal products can greatly reduce your environmental footprint. Vegan diets result in 75% less water pollution, land use, and climate-heating emissions. This is seen when compared to diets in which more than 100g of meat a day is eaten. Low-meat diets, less than 50g a day, have half the impact of high-meat diets. Additionally, they reduced wildlife destruction by 66% and cut water use by 54% (Guardian). Comparatively, plant-based diets have similar benefits when focusing just on the food aspects. Likewise, vegetarian diets provide fewer issues than meat-based diets. Pescatarian diets are a little harder to assess the environmental impacts, largely due to the number of issues that surround the seafood industry. While it takes less resources to farm seafood, there is still a lot that goes into it. If you want to know more about that, check out the Digest article about seafood farming. Still, pescatarians choose to remove the two biggest polluters that come from animal agriculture, cows and sheep, but we’ll get to that later.

So, what we know so far is that the main problem for high emission diets is meat consumption. But how is meat consumption damaging to the planet? Meat and dairy production require a lot of resources. Water is used in the food grown for the animals, as well as the watering of the animals themselves. Additionally, for the best taste, animals need a lot of space to roam which takes up a lot of land. Humans use 75% of the earth, a majority of that is for farming (Guardian). The demand of the industry results in natural habitats being destroyed to make room for more animal agriculture. The loss of natural habitats results in the loss of biodiversity, thus limiting the natural resources we can use for things like medicine. As I mentioned before, beef and lamb are the biggest contributors to the damaging effects of animal agriculture. But how does eliminating beef and lamb reduce emissions though? Cows and sheep have a specific gut microbiome that encourages the production of methane, one of the most damaging greenhouse gasses. A lot of cows and sheep being raised results in more emissions than normal. For those who participate in veganism, their methane emissions are 93% higher than for those who participate in high-meat diets (Guardian). Additionally, eliminating beef from your diet frees up 42% of US cropland and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 334 MMT. (NIH).

What are some other ways your diet has an impact on the environment? Global food systems are responsible for emitting a third of the total greenhouse gas emissions that power global heating. It uses 70% of the world's freshwater, causing 80% of river and lake pollution (Guardian). The National Institutes of Health found that “animal agriculture is responsible for a third of phosphorus and nitrogen landing into freshwater, 55% of erosion and sediment, half of antibiotic use, and 37% of pesticide use.” Not only is meat consumption bad for the environment, but it can also be bad for your health. Vegetarian diets support lower risk of high blood pressure, and developing coronary heart disease. They also support your health by increasing your longevity (Harvard Health). Those who eat a high amount of processed meat are at a 20% higher risk of bowel cancer compared to those who eat little to none (NIH). 34,000 deaths a year are a result of eating highly processed meat, whereas 50,000 deaths a year are from high consumption of red meat. Finally, if we put as much production into human food sources as we do animal feed, 70% more calories would be available, allowing us to feed 4 billion more people (NIH). 

What should you take away from this? Going vegan is the best thing you can do for this planet, however, that might not fit into your lifestyle. Whether you don’t have time, or it goes against your religion, going fully vegan is not the only option you have. As I mentioned before, researching each of these diets to determine what works best for you is essential. If you do choose to go fully vegan or plant-based, I recommend that you don’t drop all animal products at once, as it is likely you will experience withdrawals and other negative symptoms. Slowly remove animal products from your diet, beginning first with big carbon producers like red meats and poultry. There is a plethora of delicious recipes out there that don’t require meat, it just requires some Googling. Finally, if you can’t commit to fully adopting any of these diets, then choosing to eat less meat, perhaps once or twice a week, will do more for the planet than you think. Check out the resources below to find more information about each diet, how you can participate, animal agriculture, and more. 


Resources

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© 2023 by The Office of Sustainability at Rider University.

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