Food production under plant-based and animal-based diets

A study quantifies the benefits of plant-based diets versus animal-based diets for food security by extending the definition of food loss to include inefficient dietary choices. Food production from animal sources consumes more resources per gram, calorie, or gram protein, compared with food production from plant sources. Therefore, allocation of resources toward the production of animal-based food items constitutes food loss. Ron Milo and colleagues quantified the effective food loss, termed opportunity cost, by estimating the amount of food that could be produced if animal-based items were replaced by nutritionally comparable plant-based items in the US diet. The authors found that plant-based replacements could produce 2-fold to 20-fold more protein per acre than beef, pork, poultry, dairy, or eggs. The authors further estimated that replacing all animal-based products in the average American diet with plant-based alternatives would allow increased food production sufficient to feed approximately 350 million additional people. This quantity would exceed the amount of food that could be gained from eliminating all conventional food loss pathways, such as spoilage or leaky supply chains, according to the authors.

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Article #17-13820: "The opportunity cost of animal based diets exceeds all food losses," by Alon Shepon, Gidon Eshel, Elad Noor, and Ron Milo.

MEDIA CONTACT: Ron Milo, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, ISRAEL; tel: +972-505714697; e-mail: ron.milo@weizmann.ac.il; Gidon Eshel, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; tel: 4137172187; e-mail:geshel@gmail.com.