What Would Happen If Everyone on Earth Stopped Eating Meat?

It's been widely reported that eating red meat can be bad for you, but now some experts are suggesting that if the whole world went vegetarian, the global mortality rate would drop by approximately 7 million people per year. The figures come from an analysis of computer data worked up by researchers from the University of Oxford. Their predictions took into account the effect a meat-free world would have on everything from climate change to freeing up large swaths of farmland to use for vegetable production. One of the researchers, Marco Springmann, said that his computer model predicted a global mortality reduction of between 6 percent and 10 percent if we all switched to a vegetarian diet. The benefits could include fewer deaths by stroke, heart disease, diabetes, and even some cancers. Springmann added that a vegan world would reduce mortality even further, by approximately 8 million deaths per year. Medical costs would also decrease, Springmann said, with less of a need to treat chronic diseases associated with the consumption of meat.

Views on vegetarianism:

• A vegetarian lifestyle has been shown to speed up the body's metabolism, boosting calorie burning by approximately 16 percent, compared to a carnivorous lifestyle.
• The world's first plant-based social group, the Vegetarian Society, was formed in England in 1847; it continues to promote vegetarianism in numerous ways.
• According to some estimates, it takes approximately 2,500 gallons (6,814 liters) of water to produce a single pound (.45 kg) of beef.