Along with stopping animal suffering, many vegans hope their efforts will save the planet at the same time. Veganism has often been praised as a more environmentally friendly choice with one analysis finding that it leads to 75 percent less climate-heating emissions, water pollution, and land use.
In general, that may be true, but you still need to exercise awareness with what you eat because some vegan foods may still present a challenge to the planet.
I’ve done some research on this and will give you an overview of the most common culprits that are not environmentally friendly. Veganism normally ranks highly as a diet, but meat production, especially beef, contributes to greenhouse gases and requires large amounts of land and water for it to succeed.
Key Takeaways
1. Avocados
The issue isn’t so much to do with avocados but the way we farm them is unsustainable. Mexico stands out as the world’s largest exporter of avocados, but unfortunately, the farming of them contributes to deforestation, particularly in this country. In the states of Michoacan and Jalisco, the demand for avocados has contributed to more than 70,000 acres being deforested in the last 10 years.
Avocados in Mexico also attract criminal groups who displace people and deforest what was once a lush and beautiful countryside. Besides the issues with clearing out trees, avocados also demand tons of water, and in drought prone areas, this can worsen issues. As one observer in Argentina noted, you start to see everything around the avocado plantation go dry.
To be clear, avocados still have less environmental impact than animal products, but it would be a mistake to consider avocados sustainable or environmentally friendly since they do come with their problems.
2. Tofu
Perhaps one of the most common foods you can eat as a vegan for getting your protein, this one took over my plant-based diet at one point. Again, like with avocados, the issue doesn’t stem from the avocados themselves in most cases—the issue comes from how we don’t use sustainable practices.
Tofu comes from soybeans and provided you farm them in sustainable ways, it never becomes a problem.
The issue is that soybeans have a reputation as contributing to deforestation especially in South America where they’ve cleared large tracts of rainforest to make room for soybean production.
Not only does it lead to deforestation of rainforests, but we lose our natural biodiversity, and the rainforests in South America have a reputation as being some of the most biodiverse areas on the planet.
Other things that harm the environment are the use of dangerous pesticides and the extreme water consumption that hurts the local ecosystem.
Tofu by itself isn’t a problem, but you want to check that you buy from sources that won’t contribute to harming the environment. To check this, look for labels that indicate organic or non-GMO soybeans. Locally sourced when possible is also best to reduce the carbon imprint from shipping.
Avoid tofu or soybeans from Brazil in particular where the problem has become widespread.
3. Almonds
Not all nuts are eco-friendly with some being more unsustainable than others. The one I’d like to point out especially is almonds, and this one I point out because many vegans use almonds for their milk. Nuts are a great source of protein, but the issue with them is that they can have huge water footprints.
Almonds, in particular, commonly produced in the United States have a reputation as demanding 7,302 liters of water.
It takes 5 liters of water to produce one almond. Cashew nuts are the second biggest culprits with them demanding 6,450 liters of water to produce 1 pound of cashews.
If you’d like to know about more eco-friendly choices for nuts, peanuts have a reputation as being more environmentally friendly. They typically only require 12 liters of water to produce an ounce of peanuts. For a pound of peanuts, it requires 144 liters, and while that might seem like a lot, it still pales in comparison to almonds or cashews.
4. Quinoa
A lot of the issues with quinoa, like with avocados or tofu, will come from the sustainable practices of the farm. Unfortunately, industrialized agriculture often ignores sustainable practices in favor of profits.
Chemicals used to farm quinoa to meet demand can cause issues, but another danger comes from how as the demand for quinoa rises, it could put increasing pressure on farmers to make room for more land for it.
Quinoa has also exploded in popularity in recent years due to it being known as a superfood with a lot of protein. You get 8 to 9 grams of protein per cup. It may not be the worst choice, but people should still be aware of its impact.
Every health-conscious vegan is looking for more ways to get protein because one of the weaknesses of the vegan diet is getting enough protein. Meat is a huge source of protein but since vegans don’t eat meat, they need to find other sources. Some Bolivian farmers have also noted how the soil has become less fertile since the boom in demand for quinoa.
Final Thoughts
The point here isn’t necessarily to stop you from eating avocados or drinking a glass of almond milk once in a while. Instead, I hope that this article makes you more conscious of your environmental impact even with vegan food.
Many of the foods mentioned here still perform far better than meat products in terms of how they impact the environment and there’s nothing wrong with having them once in a while.
This study from Yale (1) found that vegan diets have one-fourth the impact of meat-heavy diets, but you still need to be conscious of your consumption.(1) https://e360.yale.edu/digest/vegan-diet-climate-meat-vegetarian-pescatarian
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