Are Vegan Alternatives Really Sustainable?

Alice Bennett

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Veganism’s popularity has soared in recent years as many of us have altered our lifestyles to be more ‘sustainable’. Yet, marketing tools like ‘Veganuary’ have made some people sceptical about claims that going plant-based will save the planet.

So, are vegan alternatives the answer to the climate crisis, or is it all just greenwashing?

What are the benefits?

The vegan lifestyle claims to have plenty of benefits including being a more ethical, healthy and sustainable way of living. Plenty of research has shown that a vegan diet is more eco-friendly than a carnivorous one. For example, one study found that vegan diets resulted in 75% less greenhouse gas emissions than diets with more than 100 grams of meat a day. Another showed that meat-based meals had 14 times more environmental impact than vegan meals. But is it really that simple, and are all plant-based alternatives sustainable?

https://twitter.com/veganuary/status/1753508334651715636

 

Imported goods and ‘bad’ vegan food

Not all vegan alternatives are made equal as many meat-free options are highly processed and are, like meat products, the result of intensive mass farming. This kind of farming often involves harmful pesticides and fertilisers that harm biodiversity. 

Several popular plant-based staples such as almond milk and avocados have also come under fire for their substantial water usage. Additionally, there have been criticisms of vegans relying too much on imported goods that impact the environment through transport emissions. 

“The least sustainable vegan option is still overall better than the most eco-friendly meat.”

 

So, rather than going completely meat-free, is going local the answer? Research shows that buying locally sourced meat and dairy is certainly an improvement. However, experts still maintain that the least sustainable vegan option is still overall better than the most eco-friendly meat. Transportation only accounts for 10% of a food’s carbon footprint.

A good example to put this into perspective is almond milk. This dairy alternative has faced significant backlash due to its water consumption. However, according to Our World in Data, it still uses less water than dairy milk.

Almond milk produces less carbon emissions than dairy, oat, soy and rice milk– so it depends on how you measure ‘sustainability’. Ultimately, dairy milk has more of an environmental impact than its vegan alternatives on all accounts, including land use and eutrophication.

Vegan Leather

One vegan alternative that appears to have more nuance is vegan leather. Vegan leather often contains plastic and results in wasting cow hides–not exactly the eco-friendly solution we’d hoped for. 

Leather is often a by-product of the meat industry, and the popularity of faux leather results in a lot of waste, with 5 million cow hides going to landfills in 2020. It should also be considered that no plant-based alternatives are currently as durable as animal leather, so it could be more sustainable in the long run.

“Determining which is more eco-friendly is complicated.”

Although, leather could be considered a “subsidy” rather than a by-product. As the Guardian argues, the leather industry is extremely profitable, so buying leather is arguably also supporting the meat industry (and exotic leathers are a completely different story).

Determining which is more eco-friendly is complicated, as it depends on how the leather is made. Modern tanneries are often efficient and non-toxic, whereas others are less regulated. However, you could factor in the carbon footprint of beef.

Likewise, the manufacturing of some faux leather can require a great deal of fossil fuels and is made with plastic, but there has been some progress with more sustainable mycelium (fungi) leather. 

 

Regardless of your stance on faux leather, it ultimately highlights a wider issue regarding fast fashion and its devastating effect on the environment. Whilst many researchers suggest that, overall, vegan leather has less of an impact–potentially one third less impactful than real leather–fast fashion companies advertising themselves as sustainable for using faux leather is a prime example of greenwashing.

Conscious Consumerism

So, perhaps there is more nuance to vegan alternatives as not all plant-based options are as sustainable as others. 

However, the evidence clearly shows, as a study from Oxford claims, that going vegan is one of the best ways to tackle climate change and reduce your carbon footprint–and it’s cheaper than eating meat, according to said study.

Ultimately, being a conscious consumer is the key to living a more sustainable lifestyle, whether that’s getting locally sourced meat if a vegan diet isn’t suitable, opting for the more sustainable plant-based options or choosing thrifting over fast fashion.

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Featured image courtesy of dhanya purohit on Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image licence found here.