VIENNA—Increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables and reducing meat intake by half benefits a person’s overall health as well as the environment by saving resources and cultivable land, according to a study conducted at Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna).
The researchers examined the association between switching to a healthier diet consisting of cereal, potatoes and rice, plenty of vegetables and only a little meat, and its effect on the environment. They found a healthy diet would help to save resources and cultivable land. They also found eating organic food has less far-reaching consequences.
In Austria, 3,600 square meters of soil are needed to feed the average person. The researchers calculated how this would change if people adhered to official nutrition guidelines. Meat consumption would have to be reduced by half, the consumption of vegetables and cereal would increase.
“This would not only lower cancer rates and reduce the number of cardiovascular diseases, the area required for the production of food would be reduced from 3,600 square meters to 2,600 square meters per person," they said, adding a healthier diet also would reduce energy consumption in food production, and considerably less fertilizer would be needed. A well-balanced diet would save one-third of carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases in food production.
They noted switching to organic food is not necessarily a good solution because while organic food production requires less fertilizer, the production intensity is lower and requires even larger areas.
“Switching to organic food production would therefore even exacerbate the problem of limited cultivable land, increasing the dependence on food imports," they said.
