Study Suggests if Everyone Went Vegan, We Could Save 8.1 Million Human Lives per Year

It’s not just animals who would benefit from a vegan world. According to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, by 2050, we could be saving 8.1 million human lives per year just by leaving animal-derived foods out of our diets.

Researchers led by Dr. Marco Springmann at the University of Oxford studied the impact that a global shift in the way we eat would have on climate change and our health. And if their findings don’t have you ditching meat and stocking up on delicious fresh fruits and veggies, we don’t know what will.

“Our analysis indicates that dietary changes toward fewer animal and more plant-based foods are associated with significant benefits due to reductions in diet-related mortality and GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions,” the study says.

According to the researchers, if everyone were to go vegan, the combined number of deaths per year from strokes, coronary heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes would decrease by 19 percent.

Also a powerful step to mitigate climate change, ending meat production would reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the global agriculture industry by 63 percent, and a world full of vegans would reduce those emissions by 70 percent. What are the associated cost savings of these reduced emissions? A cool $570 billion, the study predicts.

And a worldwide shift to vegan eating wouldn’t just save lives and the planet: According to the study, it would also cut billions of dollars in health-care costs and reduce the expenses incurred as a result of “informal care and lost work days”—saving as much as $700 billion to $1 trillion per year.

What are you waiting for?

The clock is already ticking. Reduce your environmental footprint, improve your health, and save an untold number of lives—both human and animal—just by going vegan.

An overwhelming body of evidence demonstrates the positive effects that plant-based eating has on the world. Be on the right side of history. Pledge to go vegan today!