The relationship between diet and environmental sustainability

The main diet for humans is meat and plant base. According to the David and Marcia Pimentel, 2 billion people are primarily on a meat-base diet and 4 billion people are on a plant base diet (D Pimentel and M Pimentel, 2003). The Journal of Frontiers in Nutrition has recently published a research base on the relationship between diet and environmental sustainability.

The report stated that a shift towards a plant base diet would reduce the environmental impact and the sustainability of phosphorus. Phosphorus is an important element to all life and also plays an important role in food production. It is one of the main ingredient of fertilisers to maintain productivities of crops. However, the phosphate rock is not a renewable resource and supply has started failing to meet the demand (Frontiers in Nutrition, 2016). Insufficient of phosphate would lead to eutrophication, degrade in water quality and algal bloom which would directly affect the drinking water and fisheries (Frontiers in Nutrition, 2016).

The Crops contains the footprint of phosphate would be consumed by humans in a direct and indirect path. Indirect consumption refers the crops consume by animals than consume by humans. The statistic has shown that plant is more efficient compared to animals in terms of phosphate where 1 kg of phosphate can produce 3333kg of potato while it can only produce 16kg of beef (Frontiers in Nutrition, 2016).

Dr Genevienve Metson and her team have done a research on whether human diet from meat base to plant base would provide be a possible solution. The result shows that there would be 8% increase in phosphorus excretion in the city while the phosphorus footprint of residents would decrease by 72% (Metson, Cordell and Ridoutt, 2016). It indicated that changing to a plant base diet would provide a significant reduce in phosphorus mining thus improving the environmental sustainability.

I believe that switching from meat base to a plant base diet would definitely benefit the environmental sustainability. However, the border issues behind plant base/ animal base diet would be food security in general. As mention in the article, the crop would be direct and indirectly consume by humans. Therefore, the sustainability of the crop would be an essential issue. There is a global threat in agricultural sustainability, and I believe remaining the sustainability of agricultural would be the priority.

David and Marcia Pimentel. (2003, September). Sustainability of meat- based and plant- based diets and the environment. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Available at: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/78/3/660S.full (Accessed May 28, 2017).

Frontiers in Nutrition. (2016, November 3). How your diet can influence your environmental impact. ScienceDaily. Available at: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161103124536.htm (Accessed May 28, 2017).

Metson, Cordell and Ridoutt. (2016, Augest 26). Potential Impact of Dietary Choices on Phosphorus Recycling and Global Phosphorus Footprints: The Case of the Average Australian City. Frontier in Nutrition. Available at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnut.2016.00035/full (Accessed May 28, 2017).