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The Guardian has a 2018 article, Avoiding meat and dairy is the single biggest way to reduce your impact on earth, which is commonly brought up by my vegan friends:

Avoiding meat and dairy products is the single biggest way to reduce your environmental impact on the planet, according to the scientists behind the most comprehensive analysis to date of the damage farming does to the planet.

The new research shows that without meat and dairy consumption, global farmland use could be reduced by more than 75% – an area equivalent to the US, China, European Union and Australia combined – and still feed the world.

However, a 2015 Washington Post article suggests there is no scientific consensus:

A paper from Carnegie Mellon University researchers published this week finds that the diets recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which include more fruits and vegetables and less meat, exacts a greater environmental toll than the typical American diet. Shifting to the diets recommended by Dietary Guidelines for American would increase energy use by 38 percent, water use by ten percent and greenhouse gas emissions by six percent, according to the paper.

The Wikipedia article is a mess.

Are vegan diets are better for the environment than non-vegan ones?

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    Note: "Better for the environment" is vague, and the answer *might* be different when comparing farming area, water usage, energy usage, greenhouse gases, etc. – Oddthinking Jan 02 '19 at 00:11
  • Does the article state what the benefit of reducing global farmland by 75% would be? – Joe W Jan 02 '19 at 01:51
  • To the answerers: unreferenced answers and opinions are not welcome on skeptics. I removed two unreferenced answers. – Sklivvz Jan 02 '19 at 14:02
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    India has 30% of its population on a vegetarian diet. It also has the third largest carbon footprint in the world. Russia has the fourth one, and has just around 5% vegetarians. By those statistics alone, one can't draw any positive correlation between veganism and lower environmental impact. – T. Sar Jan 02 '19 at 16:00
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    By the way "Avoiding meat and dairy is the single biggest way to reduce your impact on earth" is patently false: not having children, dying or raising vegan children are likely more impactful than going vegan, albeit a bit more ...dramatic. – Sklivvz Jan 02 '19 at 16:23
  • @T.Sar drawing a correlation from two data points? With a million other circumstantial differences between them? That's not evidence. – Ben Millwood Jan 10 '19 at 18:13
  • "By those statistics alone, one can't draw any positive correlation between veganism and lower environmental impact" -> I made it clear that this wasn't a good statistical model, I think. My point is to put in evidence that you can't really associate veganism with lower carbon footprint without considering the rest. – T. Sar Jan 10 '19 at 18:36

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