Table 4 Land use, water use, eutrophication and biodiversity impact by diet group, standardized to 2,000 kcal and by age and gender

From: Vegans, vegetarians, fish-eaters and meat-eaters in the UK show discrepant environmental impacts

Diet group

Land use (m2 d−1)

Water use (m3 d−1)

Eutrophication (gPO4e d−1)

Biodiversity impact (×10−12 species extinction per day)

Vegans

4.37 (3.59, 5.90)

0.41 (0.26, 0.77)

10.70 (8.61, 16.28)

1.12 (0.73, 2.55)

Vegetarians

6.01 (5.04, 9.32)

0.53 (0.38, 0.89)

17.27 (14.36, 22.09)

2.08 (1.19, 5.38)

Fish-eaters

6.31 (5.20, 9.68)

0.71 (0.48, 1.63)

21.09 (17.36, 26.52)

2.10 (1.24, 5.51)

Low meat-eaters

8.31 (5.91, 12.95)

0.71 (0.48, 1.70)

23.55 (19.17, 28.88)

2.29 (1.34, 5.90)

Medium meat-eaters

11.28 (7.38, 26.32)

0.78 (0.54, 2.02)

29.61 (23.96, 36.62)

2.77 (1.56, 6.78)

High meat-eaters

16.78 (10.31, 60.84)

0.89 (0.63, 2.04)

40.80 (31.26, 52.27)

3.69 (1.92, 8.92)

  1. Results presented for all adults (N = 55,504). All results are presented as median (2.5th percentile, 97.5th percentile) from a Monte Carlo analysis with 1,000 iterations.
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