News outlets report on a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences looking at the potential health and climate change impacts of more plant-based diets worldwide.

Thomson Reuters Foundation: A vegetarian world would be healthier, cooler, and richer: scientists
“By eating less meat and more fruit and vegetables, the world could avoid several million deaths per year by 2050, cut planet-warming emissions substantially, and save billions of dollars annually in health care costs and climate damage, researchers said…” (Rowling, 3/21).

Washington Post: The profound planetary consequences of eating less meat
“…The results, while theoretical in nature, certainly make a strong case for treating the food system, and animal agriculture in particular, as a key part of the climate change issue. Namely, the researchers find that shifting diets toward eating more plant-based foods on a global scale could reduce between six and 10 percent of mortality — saving millions of lives and billions of dollars — even as it also cuts out 29 to 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions linked to food by the year 2050…” (Mooney, 3/21).