Investigating the impacts of shifting to a plant-based diet on society and the environment

现在人们认识到，全球粮食、水和能源需求的增加，以及预计的全球人口增长和气候变化，正在给自然资源带来比以往任何时候都更大的压力。粮食和能源需求不断增长的核心是提供多种生态系统服务的有限土地资源的可获得性和可持续利用。随着全球对肉类和乳制品的需求不断增长，这些产品的产量在过去50年里翻了两番，环保人士主要关注甲烷生产对生态系统的影响。与此同时，素食主义者和动物福利活动家呼吁向更符合道德的植物性饮食转变。在英国，素食者的数量在过去十年里增加了350%。由于人类活动会加剧对自然的破坏，因此值得探讨如何更好地管理不同的生态系统来支持人类健康和保护生物多样性。由于全球72%的农业用地用于饲养牲畜，管理我们的生态系统可能会控制传染病的爆发以及病虫害的控制。本研究项目旨在了解向植物性饮食转变对以下指标的影响：1.人类健康：转变为植物性饮食对传染病传播和抗生素耐药性的潜在共同好处是什么？2.供应链：目前的消费者需求是什么，这种转变将如何影响欧盟内可能不种植的植物性食品的供应链？3.作物选择和植物性替代品：这种饮食转变将如何决定将种植哪些作物？4.栽培方法：这种转变是否需要改变？土地利用和替代耕作方法能否支持更可持续的耕作？5.对土地和土地利用有什么影响：以植物为基础的农业是否会影响土壤质量和生物多样性？方法论环境方面：这些问题与社会目前面临的气候变化问题有着内在的联系。由于大多数能源和粮食安全依赖于可持续的土地利用，全球很可能会发生相当大的直接和间接的土地利用变化。这个项目的一部分将着眼于从转向植物性饮食可能带来的土壤变化。推动超越传统干预措施以实现变革，并投资于创新的耕作方法，使垂直耕作成为一种有吸引力的替代方案，因为它具有减少农作物占地面积的潜力。社会经济方面：该项目进一步旨在了解当前在素食主义和植物性饮食方面的社会和社会格局。它的目标之一是评估目前的饮食习惯，评估人口对气候变化问题和转向影响较小的植物性系统的态度。此外，我的目标是评估饮食结构转变将给消费者带来的成本变化，以及这将如何影响供应链以及生产成本。由于这样的饮食转变将影响肉类和乳制品行业，该项目还将致力于解决生产者新的替代市场的潜力。健康方面：关于环境干预对牛的潜在健康共同好处，几乎没有进行过调查。值得注意的是，导致住院或死亡的食源性感染更多地与动物性食品有关，而不是蔬菜类食品。环境研究人员现在开始与公共卫生专家合作，研究环境、动物和人类健康之间的关系。传染病威胁着个人的福祉，在生态和经济上、地方和国际上都是一个重大的公共卫生负担。我计划调查饮食变化、消费者健康和长期社会健康之间的关系。

It is now acknowledged that the global rise in food, water and energy demand, along with the predicted increase in global population and climate change are putting natural resources under more pressure than ever before. At the core of this increasing demand for food and energy is the availability and sustainable use of a limited land resource that delivers multiple ecosystem services. With the ever-increasing global demand for meat and dairy, production of which has quadrupled over the past 50 years, environmentalists have focused primarily on the consequences of methane production on the ecosystem. At the same time, vegan and animal welfare activists are calling for a shift towards a more ethical, plant-based diet. In the UK, the number of vegans has risen by 350% in the past decade.As human activities can exacerbate natural disservices, it is worth exploring how better management of distinct ecosystems could support human health and preserve biodiversity. With 72% of agricultural land devoted to livestock globally, managing our ecosystems may regulate outbreaks in infectious diseases as well as pest control. This research project will aim to understand the impacts of shifting towards a plant-based diet on the following indicators:1. Human health: What are the potential co-benefits of transitioning to a plant-based diet on the spread of infectious diseases and antibiotic resistance?2. Supply chain: What is the current consumer demand and how will this transition affect the supply chain of plant-based foods that may not be grown within the EU?3. Crop choice and plant-based alternatives: How will this dietary shift determine what crops will be cultivated?4. Cultivation method: Will this shift require a change in land use and could alternative cultivation methods support a more sustainable farming?5. What are the impacts on the land and land use: Will a plant-based agriculture affect soil quality and biodiversity? MethodologyEnvironmental aspect: These questions are inherently linked to the issue of climate change society is currently facing. As most energy and food security rely on sustainable land use, it is likely that considerable direct and indirect land use change will occur globally. Part of this project would look at the soil changes that could follow from a shift to a plant-based diet. The drive to look beyond conventional interventions to achieve change and investing in innovative cultivation methods places vertical farming as an attracting alternative for its potential to reduce the area of land occupied by crops.Socio-economic aspect: This projects further aims to understand the current social and societal landscape with respects to veganism and plant-based diets. One of its goals it to appraise current eating habits and assess the attitude of the population regarding the issue of climate change and the shift towards lower-impact plant-based systems. In addition, I aim to evaluate the change in costs a dietary shift will bring to consumers, and how this will impact the supply chain, as well as productions costs. As such transition in diet will impact the meat and dairy industry, this project will also aim to address the potential for new alternative markets for producers.Health aspect: Little investigation has been done in terms of potential health co-benefits of environmental interventions with respects to cattle. Notably, food-born infections that result in hospitalisation or death are more often associated with animal-based than vegetable-based foods. Environmental researchers are now starting to collaborate with public health experts to look at the interface between environmental, animal and human health. Infectious diseases threaten individual well-being and represent a major public health burden, both ecologically and economically, locally and internationally. I plan to investigate the relationship between diet change, consumer health and long-term societal health.