A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge has developed a way to assess the impact of what we eat on the survival of other species around the world, according to a study published in Nature Food.
Up to 1,100 species of vertebrates are facing extinction over the next 100 years if we continue to consume resources at the current rate and the global use of land for agriculture remains unchanged. The authors also highlight that this figure does not account for future population growth and is likely a significant underestimate.
For this study, the researchers assessed the productivity of various pieces of land and calculated the impact of different food items on biodiversity. Some of our everyday foods – including coffee, chocolate, tea, and some fruits – are all grown in tropical regions of the world. These areas have a significantly higher impact on extinctions than those from temperate regions because tropical areas are so rich in biodiversity. When it comes to animal products, eating beef and lamb has the most significant impact on species extinction, although this varies significantly depending on where the meat is produced.
The UK’s food ‘extinction footprint’ is almost entirely due to imported food. For example, beef produced in Australia and New Zealand is 30-40x more likely to cause extinctions than beef produced in the UK and Ireland.
“Every time anyone eats anything, it has an impact on the other species we share the planet with,” said Dr Thomas Ball, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology. “Rearing the cattle for one kilo of beef needs a huge amount of land, which displaces a lot of natural habitat. On average, this has a much bigger impact on species’ survival than growing one kilogram of vegetable protein, such as beans or lentils.
“Our study shows that eating beans and lentils is 150 times better for biodiversity than eating ruminant meat. If everyone in the UK switched to a vegetarian diet overnight, we could halve our biodiversity impact.”
The work is based on the LIFE metric (Land-cover change Impacts on Future Extinctions) developed by the University of Cambridge. This quantifies how changes in land use, such as deforestation or habitat restoration, will affect the extinction risk of 30,875 terrestrial vertebrate species worldwide.
“When it comes to decisions about producing food, it’s not enough to focus on one country in isolation. We have a UK agricultural policy that incentivises farmers to set aside more land for nature and reduce food production. But if that means we’re making up the shortfall by relying on imports from more biodiverse places, it could cause far more damage to the species on our planet in the long run,” concluded Ball.
Ball, T.S., Dales, M., Eyres, A. et al. Food impacts on species extinction risks can vary by three orders of magnitude. Nat Food 6, 848–856 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01224-w