Research
Energy balance
A complete shift to plant-based protein (vegetarian diet) reduces total agricultural land use and GHG emissions compared to the HHEP diet, despite requiring more arable land for crops.
Shifting to plant-based protein sources (legumes, seeds, nuts) reduces GHG emissions and pasture land use compared to animal-based proteins. While it may require more arable land for crops, the overall environmental footprint is lower.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
By contrast, with a complete shift to a vegetarian diet where protein comes from leguminous crops, global agriculture would need 80 million ha more arable land and 360 million ha less pasture land to feed the world’s 2050 population... pescetarian or vegetarian diets could result in decreasing GHG emissions.
Why this rating
Based on FAO data and LCA modeling; high fidelity for a modeling study.
Source
When too much isn’t enough: Does current food production meet global nutritional needs?
Krishna Bahadur KC et al. · PLoS ONE · 2018
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0205683
narrative_reviewCited 192×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Current global agricultural production overproduces grains, fats, and sugars while underproducing fruits, vegetables, and protein, creating a nutritional imbalance that contributes to obesity and diabetes.Good
- Shifting global production to match the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate (HHEP) recommendations would save 51 million hectares of arable land compared to current production levels.Good
- Adopting the HHEP diet increases total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 49% compared to the current global diet, primarily due to increased animal-source protein consumption.Good
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