Smoky black bean burger
Charred at the edges, soft in the middle, with pickled beetroot and a lot of black pepper.
Under a tenth of the land of beef burger.
Environment · Animals · Health
Food choices, made clearer.
Explore how food affects our health, animals and the planet. Clear answers, evidence you can check, and room to decide what matters to you.
We start from the strongest version of each objection, and every number links to its source. How we rate evidence.
Tuesday, sorted
Start with one good dinner
Most people who change how they eat do it one dinner at a time. Here are a few that are genuinely good. Reading and leaving is also a perfectly good visit.
All the guides
Golden dal with fried cumin
Soft split lentils finished with cumin seeds fried in oil until they crackle, poured over the top.
About 1.5 times the land of chicken curry.
Chana masala
Chickpeas in a dark, sour-sweet tomato sauce, sharpened with a squeeze of lemon at the end.
About 1.7 times the land of chicken curry.
Chilli peanut noodles
Twenty minutes, one pan, and a sauce of peanut butter, soy and chilli that clings to everything.
About half of the land of chicken noodles.
One thing to try
How much land is behind a week of dinners?
Protein is protein, but the land behind it is not. Tap a food to see the farmland behind seven dinners built around it, and the same figure per 100 g of protein underneath.
The land behind a week of dinners
343 m²from beef, seven dinners
Roughly about 68 tennis courts (International Tennis Federation, 2024)
Kept up for a year. Seven evening meals a week, each with one serving.
Per 100 g of protein: 164 m², which is the basis the tiles show and the fairer comparison between protein foods. Each tile is one square metre. Published global averages from Poore & Nemecek via OWID (2026-09-06). Lentils use the other-pulses category. Sample data pending review.
Choose a food
Relative to lamb, the largest in this set.
Read the evidence: Does eating less meat reduce emissions?
Three ways in
Environment
What effect does our food have on the planet?
One question to startDoes eating less meat actually reduce emissions?
Animals
What does food production mean for animals?
One question to startHow many animals are farmed and killed for food each year?
Health
What does the evidence say about what we eat and our health?
One question to startIs a vegan diet healthy?
Questions welcome
Questions you might have
We start from the strongest version of each objection, say what is right about it, and show where the evidence goes. Disagreeing is allowed.
All questions- Is grass-fed beef sustainable?Not in the way the claim suggests. Grazing can store some soil carbon, but reviews find it offsets only a fraction of cattle's own emissions, and only temporarily. Grass-fed beef usually has higher emissions per kg than grain-finished beef.Moderate evidence
- Isn't local meat better than imported plants?Usually not. Transport is a small share of most foods' emissions, typically under 10%. What you eat matters far more than where it came from.Strong evidence
- Don't livestock mostly eat food humans cannot eat?Partly true. Most livestock feed by weight is grass and crop residues. But a large share of the world's grain and almost all soy meal goes to animals, and the land used is enormous either way.Moderate evidence
- Does plant farming kill animals too?Yes, crop farming does kill wild animals, and honest accounting should include that. But most crops are grown to feed livestock, so a diet with meat generally involves more crop farming, not less.Limited evidence
What the research tells us
A few numbers worth knowing
Each one links to the claim it supports, the rating we gave it, and the source we took it from.
- 57%Share of food-system emissions from animal-based foodsYes. Animal foods produce most of food's emissions, and beef and lamb produce the most per gram of protein. Eating less of them lowers a diet's footprint substantially.Strong evidenceSource: Nature Food, 2021
- 85billion: Land animals slaughtered for meat each yearAbout ten land animals per person per year, most of them chickens. Fish are not counted individually, but likely add far more.Strong evidenceSource: FAOSTAT database, 2024
- 25%Lower risk of ischaemic heart disease in vegetarians (relative)People eating plant-based diets have fewer heart attacks on average. Trials show these diets lower cholesterol, which supports a causal link.Moderate evidenceSource: Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 2017
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