It’s time to save the planet... ...so GO and eat your dinner!

It’s National Vegetarian Week! So why are we talking about climate change?

It’s simple. The carbon footprint of meat is higher than almost all vegetarian and vegan foods available, so cutting down on meat (or cutting it out altogether) is arguably one of the simplest things any of us can do in order to help tackle climate change.

This means that everyone can be a climate activist and do their bit – and the great news is you can do this each and every time you go food shopping!

Think of National Vegetarian Week as an adventure. It’s a chance to experiment with new foods, learn some new recipes and discover a world of great tasting veggie food.

So what’s the beef with food and carbon emissions? Pardon the pun…

Well, our global food system is increasingly coming under the spotlight. When it comes to climate change, as current evidence suggests it is responsible for around one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions, mainly through the release of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen dioxide. The various gases that lead to global warming are usually reported as one figure – something called a carbon dioxide equivalent (or CO2e), which allows the global warming effect of different practices or products to be easily compared.

In the chart below (from Our World in Data), you can see the global greenhouse gas emissions (expressed as kg of CO2e per kg of food) that can be attributed to different things that people eat.

What stands out? The fact that the greenhouse gas emissions from meat are substantially higher than the vegetarian foods.

It is easy to see how swapping out meat for vegetarian foods can make a real difference to your own personal carbon footprint. And if millions of us make the switch, then together we can all make a real difference and play our role in limiting the impact of climate change on the world around us.

To show you just how much of a positive choice eating veggie can be, all the recipes in this booklet have been carbon calculated.

Where possible, we have also shown how much more carbon each recipe would produce if you were to use meat or fish instead of the main veggie ingredients.

To put this into context, we’ve also converted the carbon savings of each recipe into an equivalent number of miles driven in a car... so by choosing veggie food, you can literally make your meals better by miles!

And the results are pretty staggering!

Specifically, it reported that:

• Vegan diets reduced food costs by up to one-third

• Vegetarian diets were a close second

• Flexitarian diets (with low amounts of meat and dairy) reduced costs by 14%

Of course, you will spend more if you experiment with some of the veggie ready-meals and meat-substitutes, which is great if these suit your budget. But if not, then basing most of your diet around vegetarian and vegan wholefoods and learning some new recipes is a cheap way of having great tasting food.

About the carbon calculations

We are really chuffed to have worked with our good friends at My Emissions – who have helped develop the carbon calculations for each recipe. We thought you might like to know a little more about them!

My Emissions is a leading provider of simple and affordable carbon calculations and labelling provider for the food sector.

They already support companies such as Dr Will’s, Bio & Me, Grubby, Simply Lunch, and Camile Thai in their sustainability journeys, and their work has been recognised by Innovate UK.

So eating more veggie food can help the climate – but does it have other benefits?

Yes of course!

Here in the UK, we are a nation of animal lovers. But sometimes we forget about the plight of farmed animals. They are all intelligent and sentient creatures, in fact many studies suggest pigs are more intelligent than dogs. So eating veggie and vegan food is one way in which we can plot a future towards not only a more sustainable food system but also a kinder one.

Is it true that vegetarians and vegans are healthier?

The food sector is currently responsible for more than 25% of all global greenhouse gas emissions.

My Emissions has developed a rating system that makes it easy for food companies and consumers to understand and reduce the carbon impact of food.

The carbon rating label explained...

Evidence suggests this is the case.

The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) Oxford study has been assessing the health of 65,000 UK volunteers since the 1990s. Among many findings it reports that vegetarians and vegans have:

• 37% less risk of developing diabetes

• 22% less risk of coronary heart disease

The My Emissions carbon label rates a product from A (Very Low) to E (Very High), based on the ‘kg CO2e per kg’ carbon footprint of the product (carbon intensity).

But isn’t eating vegetarian and vegan food expensive?

No it isn’t! And it’s not just us saying that – a recent Oxford University study found that in high income countries like the UK, cooking wholefood vegetarian and vegan meals can be cheaper than meat-based diets.

• 12% lower risk of cancer, with significantly lower risks for stomach cancer, bladder cancer and blood cancers, such as leukaemia.

Of course, no matter what you eat, it’s important to eat a well-balanced diet and this applies equally to vegetarians and vegans.