Data sources and assumptions

 

Daily meat consumption based on self-reported meaty meals per day

We assume that:

  • 1 meaty meal means 0.23 lbs of meat consumption per day.

  • 2 meaty meals means 0.34 lbs of meat consumption per day.

  • 3 meaty meals means 0.45 lbs of meat consumption per day.

These estimates are based on data provided by the USDA Economic Research Service, which puts the USA daily meat consumption per capita at 0.34 lbs. We then assume that the average American eats 2 meaty meals a day. 3 meaty meals per day therefore represents above average consumption and we assume a 1/3 increase in daily consumption. 1 meaty meal a day is below average and we assume a 1/3 decrease in daily consumption.

Global average daily meat consumption

We estimate global average daily meat consumption at 0.1lbs based on data provided by The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations Statistics Division.

To get a percentile figure, we sorted countries by their average daily meat consumption. 

Impact of a successful Reducetarian pledge over 30 days

We estimate that a 10 lb reduction in meat consumption results in:

  • 147 lbs of Co2 saved

  • 53 Gallons of Water Saved

  • 1.6 animal lives saved.

The estimates are based on data from the following sources:

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es702969f
http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document/pdf/dga2005.pdf
http://waterfootprint.org/media/downloads/Report-48-WaterFootprint-AnimalProducts-Vol1.pdf
http://www.oda.state.ok.us/food/fs-cowweight.pdf
https://www.meatinstitute.org/index.php?ht=d/sp/i/47465/pid/47465

We derived per pound estimates by averaging across data for beef, pork, chicken, and fish production in all categories.

If you have any questions about our data and assumptions, or suggestions for increasing the accuracy of this tool, please contact brian@reducetarian.org.