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The co-founder of a plant-based meat company has highlighted the destruction caused by livestock production.
Today is Biodiversity Day – which has inspired Bernat Añaños, co-founder of Spanish startup Heura – to remind people of a statistic from a WWF report.
Ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss
The 2017 report, Appetite for Destruction, states that 60 percent of all biodiversity loss across the planet can be traced back to livestock production – and 110 animals and insects species are lost from rainforest destruction.
Añaños also cites the World Resources Report, Creating a Sustainable Food Future which says the ongoing expansion of cropland and pastures is the primary source of ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss.
When it comes to land usage, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), livestock takes up nearly 80 percent of the Earth’s agricultural land, yet produces less than 20 percent of the world’s calories.
‘Solve several concerns’
“By reducing animal meat consumption by 50 percent, 4.45 million square kilometers of cropland – the size of India and Mongolia together – could be used for agriculture,” Añaños said in a statement sent to Plant Based News.
“Multiplying the legumes and cereals production capacity for human consumption by 2.5…we would solve several concerns in terms of biodiversity, climate change, and hunger creating a more sustainable food system.
“All these data show the incoherence of our current food system and the urge we have to transition to a plant-based diet if we want to take care of the biodiversity, the planet, and therefore our own health.”
