The Herbivore Family
What Would Happen If the World Suddenly Went Meatless?
Let’s explore a hypothetical scenario together. Currently, there are over four times as many livestock on Earth as there are people. In fact, farmed cattle alone weigh nearly ten times as much as all wild mammals combined.
So, imagine if a “wizard of meatless dining” suddenly appeared and, with one wave of a wand, wiped away all meat from our shelves—along with any desire to eat it. Farm animals destined for food vanish, whisked away to another planet.
What happens in the following days, years, and even millennia?
The Immediate Aftermath: Shock and Scramble
Overnight, food-related greenhouse gas emissions would drop by about 63%. However, humanity would face an immediate nutritional crisis. We would no longer get protein and key nutrients from the approximately 70 billion chickens, 1.5 billion pigs, 300 million cattle, and 200 million tons of fish and shellfish processed for consumption each year.
To help fill this nutritional gap, our demand for fruits, vegetables, and legumes would skyrocket. While most dietitians agree a plant-based diet contains all the nutrients needed for a healthy life, there initially wouldn’t be enough of these foods to go around. This sudden rise in demand would cause produce costs to soar.
Cultural and Economic Collapse
The transition would not be smooth for everyone. In regions like Mongolia, where the harsh environment makes it difficult to grow vegetables, a sudden lack of meat would leave people with little to eat. Cultures built around meat would lose their foundations. For example, members of salmon-eating tribes in the Pacific Northwest would lose not only sustenance and livelihoods but an integral component of their religion.
Economically, tens of millions of anglers would lose work. As the meat industry collapses, many households in developing countries would be left scrambling to replace income that once came from livestock farming.
The Stabilization: A Healthier, Cheaper System
Eventually, markets would adjust. Some meat producers would shift to agricultural crops. This switch would benefit workers and neighboring communities, making them less susceptible to the respiratory diseases often associated with livestock production. As crop agriculture expands, prices would come down, ultimately making vegetarianism less expensive than meat-eating in most countries.
Crucially, we wouldn’t need to clear new farmland to grow all this extra plant food. Without animals raised for meat, the vast amounts of land currently used to grow animal feed would become available for human crops. All things considered, our new diets would require significantly less land and water.
Disease and Public Health
A meatless world would likely see millions of deaths avoided every year, thanks in part to lower rates of heart disease, cancer, and other conditions associated with red meat consumption.
Furthermore, the risk of future pandemics would drop. We would no longer contract new pathogens from wild animals hunted for food, novel influenza viruses from farmed pigs, or drug-resistant superbugs that develop in beef cattle preemptively fed antibiotics.
Nature Rebounds
As the years pass, global biodiversity would rise as habitat loss, pesticide use, and other pressures from animal agriculture subside.
- Forests: Amazonian birds would have more forest to fly over as deforestation slows.
- Predators: Fewer cheetahs and wolves would be shot for stalking too close to livestock.
- Pollinators: Bee, wasp, and butterfly communities would thrive as natural areas expand. In turn, insect-pollinated crops would produce higher yields.
- Oceans: Many ocean species would finally rebound from the pressures of overfishing.
Long-Term Evolution
Throughout history, humans in traditionally vegetarian regions have evolved a genetic mutation that helps them more efficiently process fats from plants. Over thousands of years in this hypothetical meatless world, our bodies might evolve to make the most of our veggies. Conversely, we might lose some ancient adaptations, such as the ability to extract iron efficiently from meat.
The Reality Check: Climate and Cattle
Of course, a wizard will not turn our world meatless. Though many individuals are choosing to go vegetarian, globally, meat-eating is still on the rise. This trend spells trouble for our climate. Even if we suddenly stopped burning fossil fuels, “business as usual” food systems paired with a growing population would push global temperatures over 1.5°C by the end of the century.
Cattle are the biggest culprit. Beef and dairy production are responsible for over 60% of all food-based emissions, while only providing around 18% of the world’s calories.
A Practical Solution
It is worth noting that a strict vegetarian diet isn’t automatically the most climate-friendly option. Diets containing modest portions of meats like chicken often produce less greenhouse gas than vegetarian diets that are high in dairy.
However, the data is clear: reducing beef, cheese, and milk consumption could go a long way toward achieving many of the benefits of a meatless world—no magic required.
