Swapping fifth of meat for alternative foods could halve deforestation

Swapping fifth of meat for different meals may halve deforestation

Even a modest shift from ruminant meat to microbial proteins may lower deforestation and carbon emissions 56 per cent by 2050

An worker inspects meat-free “hen items”, manufactured by Quorn Meals

Simon Dawson/Bloomberg through Getty Photos

Swapping a fifth of the world’s meat consumption for meat-free alternate options made in factories would greater than halve international deforestation and associated carbon emissions, a gaggle of researchers has discovered.

Cattle ranches and crops grown to feed cows are two of the largest drivers of forests being cleared throughout the tropics, which is constant regardless of political pledges to curb the lack of carbon-rich, biodiverse habitats.

Microbial proteins, such because the Quorn mycoprotein constituted of a fungus and sugar in heated …