The entire system of food production, such as the use of farming machinery, spraying of fertilizer and transportation of products, causes 17.3bn metric tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, according to the research. This enormous release of gases that fuel the climate crisis is more than double the entire emissions of the US and represents 35% of all global emissions, researchers said.
In case you're curious about plants, they're actually only 29%:
The use of cows, pigs and other animals for food, as well as livestock feed, is responsible for 57% of all food production emissions, the research found, with 29% coming from the cultivation of plant-based foods. The rest comes from other uses of land, such as for cotton or rubber. Beef alone accounts for a quarter of emissions produced by raising and growing food.
What this fails to account for is that a whole lot of land that produces beef can't produce edible vegetables. It's not so easy as flipping a switch.
Meat does NOT account for 60% of food production.
They said emissions.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/13/meat-greenhouses-gases-food-production-study
As for the rest of what they said:
In case you're curious about plants, they're actually only 29%:
What this fails to account for is that a whole lot of land that produces beef can't produce edible vegetables. It's not so easy as flipping a switch.