debate

Avocado The rich green flesh of this fruit is being smashed, blended and chopped in hipster cafes, smart restaurants and home kitchens around the world. Avocadoes can be an important source of protein, vitamins and fatty acids for people cutting out meat from their diet. But they also guzzle up huge amounts of water. A single mature tree in California, for example, needs up to 209 litres (46 gallons) every day in the summer

To grow a single avocado it has been estimated to take anything from 140 litres (30 gallons) to 272 litres (60 gallons) of water – or about 834 litres (183 gallons) per kilogram of fruit. In some areas, like Peru and Chile, the growing demand for the crop has led to illegal extraction from rivers and has been blamed for an increasing water-shortage crisis.

your pivoting answer my question which diet causes the least environmental and ethical harm meat or vegan

one takes up more resources and its not plants i know this for a fact unless you can show me how beef farming takes up less then anything your citing than its not a valid point which diet causes the least environmental and ethical harm meat or vegan

From dark rooms filled with steaming piles of compost buds a mainstay of the vegan diet. Mushrooms are a rich source of nutrients and, with the exception of bizarre debates over how vegan some mushrooms really are – oyster mushrooms are “predatory’’ and secrete sticky toxins to catch nematode worms which they digest to obtain vital nitrogen – they are considered to be a very good meat substitute. They are commonly used in many meat-free alternatives. And from a climate change point of view, they make an ideal meat replacement, producing just a fraction of beef’s emissions. But for a crop that flourishes without light by feeding on rotting organic waste, they can have a surprising impact.

Analysis by the University of Michigan found cultivated mushrooms produced 3kg of CO2/kg on average. Still far less than beef. And less than the "greenest" farmed meat – chicken – which produced 4.1kg of CO2/kg by their calculations. But it came out the same as saltwater fish and more than tuna, which release 3kg of CO2/kg and 2.2kg of CO2/kg respectively. Of course, fishing has its own environmental and biodiversity issues on top of that, though.

One further consideration is the use of peat in many of the composts used by the mushroom industry. Unless extracted sustainably, this can damage delicate bog ecosystems and deplete their ability to store carbon in the future.

Mycoprotein Another popular meat substitute grown from fungi, mycoprotein has some surprising environmental impacts. Making it uses a fraction of the land compared to chicken, pork or beef, but the carbon footprint is estimated to be 5.55-6.15kg CO2/kg by one study. More than half of this, however, comes from processing after the fungi produces the protein – some vegetarian mycoprotein products, such as mince, are combined with egg white to bind it together. Fertiliser is also needed to grow sugar the fungi feeds on, which accounts for 11% of the emissions.