Agriculture is often thought of as being at the mercy of climate change, with increasing droughts and flooding resulting in lower yields, especially across the developing world. Yet the agricultural sector also contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, itself exacerbating climate change. In fact, recently agriculture was identified as the second biggest emitter globally, producing around 10-13% of emissions. A substantial amount of these emissions comes from livestock farming with the production of the gas, methane.
TRUE, an EU-funded project, has found evidence that switching diets towards plants as sources of protein as opposed to meat, is much more sustainable. In a study conducted by one of the TRUE project partners, Trinity College Dublin, researchers scored legumes by their environmental cost of production (including greenhouse gas emissions, groundwater pollution and land use), as well as according to their nutrient content.
More information: Project website: www.true-project.eu/