Access reliable stats on food systems impact – fast and free

New resource provides scientific data on how food systems impact planet

Want to know how much methane cattle produce? Need stats on which farmed animal uses the most land? Or does your next article demand information on the extent of deforestation caused by meat eating?

Then look no further than ProVeg International’s new Food System Data website, a fast, reliable and easy-to-access database for journalists and the public on the impact of food on the planet.

The Food System Data site currently provides information on the following topics:

• Climate change
• Land use
• Deforestation
• Resource use
• Environmental pollution
• Protein diversification. 

Food System Data is designed to deliver the most credible figures around the food system, food system change and the transition towards plant-rich diets. 

All data sheets are based on the latest scientific evidence to showcase the impacts of diets on the environment, animals and health and to give insights in current developments and emerging opportunities.

Key statistics include:

• Animal-based foods are responsible for up to 20 % of global greenhouse gas emissions. ^1,2 A fast phase-out of animal agriculture could stabilise greenhouse gas levels globally for 30 years and get us more than half way (52%) to limiting global warming to 2°C³.
• If animal agriculture was a country, it would cover most of the Americas⁴.
• Nearly 70% of deforested lands in the Amazon, the largest remaining tropical rainforest in the world, is used as cattle pasture^5,6.

“Food System Data is an invaluable resource for both the media and the public alike to check with reliable sources the impact of the food they are writing about and consuming,” Jasmijn de Boo, Global CEO at ProVeg, said.

“We hope it will become a tool for regular use, particularly by journalists, as the subject of food system change rapidly grows in prominence,” she said. 

Coming soon!

The website will be expanded and will feature different dashboards that show current trajectories in consumption, production, market developments and policy that lead the way towards food system transformation.

Footnotes

1.   Xu, X., P. Sharma, et al. (2021): Global greenhouse gas emissions from animal-based foods are twice those of plant-based foods. Nature Food 2(9), 724–732. 
2. Babiker, M., G. Berndes, K. Blok et al. (2022): Cross-sectoral perspectives. In IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, R. Slade, A. Al Khourdajie, R. van Diemen, D. McCollum, M. Pathak, S. Some, P. Vyas, R. Fradera, M. Belkacemi, A. Hasija, G. Lisboa, S. Luz, J. Malley, (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA.
3. Eisen, M. B. & P. O. Brown (2022): Rapid global phaseout of animal agriculture has the potential to stabilise greenhouse gas levels for 30 years and offset 68 percent of CO2 emissions this century. PLOS Climate 1(2), e0000010.
4. Hannah Ritchie & May Roser (2024): Half of the worlds’ habitable land is used for agriculture. Our World in Data. Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/global-land-for-agriculture#article-citation [Accessed: 15.05.2024]
5.  FAO (2022): FRA 2020 Remote Sensing Survey. FAO Forestry Paper No. 186. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb9970en
6. Cerri, C.E.P., C.C. Cerri, S.M.F. Maia, M.R. Cherubin, B.J. Feigl & R. Lal (2018): Reducing Amazon Deforestation through Agricultural Intensification in the Cerrado for Advancing Food Security and Mitigating Climate Change. Sustainability. 10, p.989

Notes to Editors

For media inquiries, email Peter Rixon at [email protected]

About ProVeg International

ProVeg International is a food awareness organisation with the mission to replace 50% of animal products globally with plant-based and cultivated foods by 2040. Our vision is a world where everyone chooses delicious and healthy food that is good for all humans, animals, and our planet.