Asking everyone to become vegan is not realistic or even desirable. But livestock production has the highest environmental footprint of all foods. If the global human population continues to grow and adopt livestock-based diets, we are unlikely to slow global warming or stem the alarming rate of species extinction.
Flexitarian diets could feed the growing world population with less greenhouse gas emissions. Another potential benefit is reduced risk of disease outbreaks and pandemics.
Flexitarians consume large amounts of plant-based foods (including vegetable proteins like pulses, nuts and seeds), modest amounts of fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy, and small quantities of red and processed meat.
