LIKE-A-PRO_Task 6.5_Substituting Meat with Alternatives: The Potential to Reduce Environmental Footprints of the French Diet

This report in written by Frederick M.-J. Duan, Merel C. Daas, Pieter van ’t Veer, Sander Biesbroek at Wageningen University and Research, on behalf of the Foundation Week Without Meat to assess the impact of the Week Without Meet campaigns in each country. This research assessed the environmental impact of food consumption in France, using data from the Third French Individual and National Food Consumption (INCA3) Survey (2014-2015). Among the 2514 French adults surveyed, the average meat consumption was 184.5 grams/day. On days when individuals consumed meat, their diets had higher greenhouse gas emissions at 6.7 kg CO2-eq/day, compared with 3.2 kg CO2-eq/day on days without meat. Similarly, land use was higher on days with meat consumption, reaching 8.6 m2·year/day, compared to 3.6m2·year/day on days without meat. If individuals would replace meat with alternatives such as legumes, nuts, seeds, eggs, and meat analogues in their daily diets, their dietary greenhouse gas emissions could decline by 2.8 kg CO2-eq/day – a decrease of 35.4%. Land use could decline by 3.7 m2·year/day – a decrease of 32.8%. Therefore, lowering meat consumption in France has the potential to lessen the environmental impact of food consumption.