Marlow Harold J, Hayes William K, Soret Samuel, Carter Ronald L, Schwab Ernest R, Sabaté Joan
Departments of Environmental Health and Nutrition, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA, USA.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 May;89(5):1699S-1703S. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2009.26736Z. Epub 2009 Apr 1.
Food demand influences agricultural production. Modern agricultural practices have resulted in polluted soil, air, and water; eroded soil; dependence on imported oil; and loss of biodiversity. The goal of this research was to compare the environmental effect of a vegetarian and nonvegetarian diet in California in terms of agricultural production inputs, including pesticides and fertilizers, water, and energy used to produce commodities. The working assumption was that a greater number and amount of inputs were associated with a greater environmental effect. The literature supported this notion. To accomplish this goal, dietary preferences were quantified with the Adventist Health Study, and California state agricultural data were collected and applied to state commodity production statistics. These data were used to calculate different dietary consumption patterns and indexes to compare the environmental effect associated with dietary preference. Results show that, for the combined differential production of 11 food items for which consumption differs among vegetarians and nonvegetarians, the nonvegetarian diet required 2.9 times more water, 2.5 times more primary energy, 13 times more fertilizer, and 1.4 times more pesticides than did the vegetarian diet. The greatest contribution to the differences came from the consumption of beef in the diet. We found that a nonvegetarian diet exacts a higher cost on the environment relative to a vegetarian diet. From an environmental perspective, what a person chooses to eat makes a difference.
食物需求影响农业生产。现代农业实践导致了土壤、空气和水污染；土壤侵蚀；对进口石油的依赖；以及生物多样性的丧失。本研究的目的是从农业生产投入方面，包括农药、化肥、水以及用于生产商品的能源，比较加利福尼亚州素食和非素食饮食的环境影响。我们的工作假设是，投入的数量和总量越大，对环境的影响就越大。文献支持了这一观点。为实现这一目标，通过基督复临安息日会健康研究对饮食偏好进行了量化，并收集了加利福尼亚州的农业数据，并将其应用于该州的商品生产统计。这些数据被用于计算不同的饮食消费模式和指数，以比较与饮食偏好相关的环境影响。结果表明，对于素食者和非素食者消费存在差异的11种食品的综合差异生产而言，非素食饮食所需的水量是素食饮食的2.9倍，一次能源是2.5倍，化肥是13倍，农药是1.4倍。差异的最大贡献来自饮食中牛肉的消费。我们发现，相对于素食饮食，非素食饮食对环境造成的成本更高。从环境角度来看，一个人选择吃什么会产生影响。
