Washington, DC – While Earth Day is approaching on April 22, a new survey of the Doctors’ Committee for Medicine / The morning in the morning shows that 46% of Americans would plan to eat a diet based on plants to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from food production.
The survey included 2,203 American adults interviewed from March 24 to 26, 2025. When asked: “What is the force would you plan to eat a plant-based diet to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions?” 16% said they “considered it strongly”, while an additional 30% said they “consider it somewhat.”
The transition from meat diets and other animal products to plant diets based on plants has great potential to reduce carbon footprints and mitigate climate change, as well as to improve human health, according to climate change 2022: the attenuation of climate change, a report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on climate change.
“This day of the earth – and every day – people should eat a diet based on plants to maintain themselves and the healthy planet,” explains Roxanne Becker, MBCHB, DIPIBLM, doctor of the doctors’ committee which recommends a diet based on plants to patients for their health. “From the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to reducing the risk of food-related chronic diseases such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes, a plant-based diet is a win-win.”
More than half of those questioned, 54%, did not know what foods contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
According to research compiled by the United Nations which has examined the greenhouse gas emissions from several foods, the beef ranks the highest in kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions (70.6 kg) per kilogram of food, followed by cheeses (23.9 kg), Tofu (3.2 kg), vegetables (0.7 kg).
When they were asked to classify these foods according to the amount of greenhouse gases emitted, most of the respondents, 54%, properly classified beef as contributing greenhouse gas emissions.
Cattle produce methane as part of their digestive process, called enteric fermentation. When cows get a rampage, methane is released in the atmosphere. Methane is also produced when animal manure is stored or managed in lagoons or by holding tanks, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Experts say that the reduction in methane emissions, which is relatively short -lived but about 80 times more warming potential than carbon dioxide, is essential to prevent catastrophic climate change.
Forty percent of the respondents in the survey said that they were “strongly in agreement” or “somewhat agreement” that “the meat and dairy industry should be taxed on greenhouse gas emissions to help compensate for climate change”, that Denmark will begin to do in 2030.
Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they were “strongly in agreement” or “somewhat agreement” that “the government should offer incentives to farmers to do without animal agriculture in growing cultures and orchards to help the environment.”
When asked: “To what extent do you strongly suit yourself that federal food policy, such as food directives for Americans, should discuss the impact that food choices have on climate change, ecosystems and the environment?” A 60% handset said they were “strongly agree” or “somewhat agreement”.
Although the impact of the diet on the environment is not mentioned in food directives, research shows that the healthy vegetarian diet of food directives at half of the carbon footprint of the main recommendations of directives. The healthy vegetarian diet group replaces meat, poultry and seafood with plants based on plants, including legumes, soybeans, nuts and seeds.
