Why global veganism is the only way to save the planet\

Going vegan could help to reduce the pace of global warming, says the author of a food impact report, who is so convinced by his findings that he has ditched meat and dairy products himself.

Speaking on World Food Day, Joseph Poore, the co-author of

the study, Reducing food’s environmental impacts through

producers and consumers, said animal product is doing a “lot more damage than expected”.

Mr Poore, a researcher at the University of Oxford, said if the world’s population adopted a vegan diet, global greenhouse gas emissions would be cut by 25 per cent – and 3.1 billion fewer hectares of land would be needed for farming.

“I was interested in exploring whether it was possible to eat sustainable animal products and the answer we came to was a very strong no,” Mr Poore said. “Even the best farmers were still doing a lot more damage than we expected.”

There are five main problems associated with the production of meat, fish, eggs and dairy, he said.

According to his study, it takes feed to produce meat, thereby making it a less efficient process, plus you need to clear more land. This results in higher wastage, and both the animals and related product processing create emissions.

Globally, cattle rearing generates more global warming greenhouse gases than transport, according to the United Nations.

One dairy cow can drink up to 50 gallons of water a day, according to experts, which equates to 683 gallons of water to produce just one gallon of milk. And a startling 66 per cent of agricultural deforestation is for animal products – for either feed or pasture.

“You can have all this extra land that you need and you have to clear more rainforest or forest, which releases a lot more carbon as well,” Mr Poore said. “The carbon that is stored in the trees is either burnt and goes into the atmosphere or is left on the ground and goes into the atmosphere, so you lose a lot of potential carbon storage.”

This is just one of the reasons why going vegan would make a huge difference to the escalating problem of global warming.

“The [3.1bn ha] is the size of the United States, Europe, China and Australia combined,” Mr Poore said.

“It would cut our global greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent.”

Many vegans in Dubai agree changing your diet is not just good for your own health – but that of the planet.

Sarah Williams was never a big eater of red meat, but reading a report about its effect on the environment was the motivation she needed to cut it out for good.

The study, published in the journal Science in June, found the production of animal products occupies 83 per cent of the world’s farmland, and contributes 56 to 58 per cent of food’s various emissions.

Yet the foods provide only 37 per cent of our protein intake and 18 per cent of our calories.

The study is just the latest in a string of findings to point to the same conclusion.

This growing body of research made Ms Williams, a cheese and poultry lover from California who lives in Dubai, reconsider her diet.

“I now avoid beef entirely, and have drastically reduced my poultry and cheese consumption.”

Experts say the world needs more vegans to save the planet from global warming.

“It’s easy to make fun of vegans but, in all honesty, if we’re not actively trying to reduce our carbon footprint, we’re part of the problem,” Ms Williams said.

She is part of a growing group of people in the UAE who are becoming more conscious of what they eat.

“I always thought I was the only vegan in Dubai,” said Ananda Shakespeare, a Briton who launched two environmental organisations in the UK before moving to Dubai 14 years ago.

She started a Facebook group for vegans, called Dubai Vegan Days, which organises vegan food events, this year.

“And now I have a whole host of vegan friends and I can drop round and have vegan biscuits and they have nut milks.”

She, like many vegans, eats the way she does for the health benefits it brings.

Many health experts endorse that view. They say it is perfectly possible to get all the protein you need by eating vegan food. In doing so, they also avoid eating the additives in meat.

“Generally, as we all know, meat has a lot of additives, hormones, antibiotics and so on injected into it,” said Ahlaam Ali, a nutrition consultant in Dubai.

“So it’s not just red meat. It’s not just chicken. And fish has mercury. So there are a lot of reasons why we shouldn’t be having meat.”

Ms Ali admits that living in the UAE means a lot of vegan food is flown in, adding to the carbon footprint of vegetables. But the environmental impact is still lower than meat.