A recent study shows how dietary shifts to more meat-eating have caused roughly 75,000 premature deaths in China annually due to air pollution. The study is the first to analyze how dietary changes in China from 1980-2010 have resulted in increased emissions of agricultural ammonia from fertilizers and livestock manure and quantify its subsequent impacts on public health.
China's Meat Intensive Diets
The increase in meat production across the globe over the last 50 years is the sharpest in East Asia, especially China. Although more meat consumption and less grain in diets are known to impact human health negatively, the study is the first to quantify the Chinese dietary changes' impact via changes in agricultural practices that have led to significantly poorer air quality.
Fine particulate matter pollution in the air poses serious environmental risks to humans. It is linked with a range of adverse health conditions such as respiratory conditions, cardiovascular diseases, and lung cancer.
Agricultural ammonia is emitted primarily from both nitrogen-based fertilizer and livestock manure. Ammonia that leaches from the livestock fields reacts with airborne chemicals forming toxic components of particulate matter in air pollution.
The team of researchers was formed via the University of Exeter and the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Joint Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Resilience that was established in 2018 to promote international, inter-disciplinary researches that address some of the most significant environmental challenges facing all societies across the globe.
Dietary Shifts from the 1980s to 2010 Caused About 75,000 Premature Deaths in China
In the study published in the journal Nature Food, titled "Dietary shifts can reduce premature deaths related to particulate matter pollution in China," researchers analyzed the shifting patterns of food production and consumption in China. The team found out that meat production from 1980-2010 increased by roughly 433% from 15-80 megatons.
A small portion was attributed to the rising levels of the population, while the remaining 60 megatons resulted from changing diets. During the same period, emissions of agricultural ammonia almost doubled. The researchers estimated that the dietary changes were responsible for 63% of the rise, with the main driver of the changes being meat consumption.
Based on the results, the team estimates that roughly 5% of the roughly 1.83 million Chinese deaths related to PM pollution in 2010 could be linked to dietary changes, with the majority of the figure due to a rise in demand for meat.
If Chinese diets were significantly less meat-intensive, it would reduce the emissions of agricultural ammonia and reduce the adverse effects of air pollution on human health for the entire population. The study estimates that if the average Chinese diet was replaced with a less meat-intensive diet which was recommended by the 2016 Chinese Dietary Guideline, emissions of ammonia would decrease by 2.1 teragrams and would result in 74,805 deaths less annually, reports PhysOrg.
Xiaoyu Yan, co-author of the study and a professor at the University of Exeter, explains that the top priority of the country during the 1980s was to satisfy the basic food demand of the people. Adding that now, as undernourishment problems have decreased, a more sustainable path for consumption and production of food is needed. The current trajectory of food choices in the country has to be changed to reduce its effects on the environmental health of the domestic population and the world.
The authors of the study found that there were notable disparities between the poorest and affluent members of society. While the adverse health effects of more meat-intensive diets are largely experienced by those who cannot afford it, the effects due to increased levels of air pollution are experienced by those living on lower incomes in predominantly agricultural regions such as Henan and Hebei.
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