Plant-Based Diets for Better Air Quality and Health

Plant-based foods are better for air quality and health, according to a study evaluating nearly every food produced on American soil. The paper, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, found that shifting from meat and animal products toward plant-based foods could prevent three-quarters of agricultural air quality-related deaths each year.

Modern agriculture contributes significantly to air pollution, the largest environmental health risk in the United States and around the globe. In order to learn how the foods we eat affect air quality, a team of researchers from Oxford University and four American universities calculated the air quality-related health damages resulting from agricultural production in the United States. What they learned was striking.

Food production in the United States causes nearly 16,000 air quality-related deaths each year, 80% of which are attributable to animal-based foods, both directly from animal production and indirectly from growing animal feed. “Dietary shifts toward more plant-based foods that maintain protein intake and other nutritional needs”, the research team determined, “could reduce agricultural air quality-related mortality by 68 to 83%.”

These same changes support health from another angle too, as they “can improve diet-related health outcomes by reducing the incidence of chronic diseases, such as type-2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and cancer.” This study adds even more credibility to the words of Johan Rockström in The Game Changers film, that “Agriculture is not only the biggest culprit threatening the future for humanity on earth. It is also the biggest and most important silver bullet to a solution.”

Reference:

Domingo NGG, Balasubramanian S, Thakrar SK, Clark MA, Adams PJ, Marshall JD, Muller NZ, Pandis SN, Polasky S, Robinson AL, Tessum CW, Tilman D, Tschofen P, Hill JD. Air quality-related health damages of food. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021;118(20):e2013637118. doi:10.1073/pnas.2013637118