Why Veganism Won’t Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Diet matters but not the way you think it does

Photo by Edgar Castrejon on Unsplash

If you want to have an impact on your carbon footprint, don’t start with vegetables.

Wild Claims

In the quest for taking personal action to reduce one’s carbon footprint, the argument for veganism and vegetarianism has been repeated many times. For example, this article mindlessly claims “Eating more plant-based meals is the fastest way to shrink your carbon footprint,” and offers no evidence at all.

Here’s another example from downtoearth.org:

“Study after study has shown that there’s a strong correlation between climate change and the production of animal-based foods.” (emphasis added)

The problem is there is also a strong correlation between the consumption of whiskey and reading the Bible, but it doesn’t mean one causes the other.