What If the World Went Vegan? A Review of the Impact on Natural Resources, Climate Change, and Economies

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Overall, this is a tidy summary of the issues and challenges associated with current plant-based transitions in the agri-food sector.

There are two issues which need to be addressed, however, before the article will be suitable for publication. 

The first issue is that there seems to be a logical fallacy at play in regards to the argument regarding food/crop security. The authors argue (by my reading) that transitioning to vegan/vegetarian diets will result in the agri-food sector being more vulnerable to pets and disease. However, given the authors themselves note that significant amounts of farmland are given over to producing feed for livestock, how would a more efficient use of land (i.e. growing food more for humans than cattle) cause this problem? Given the generally monocultural (?) approach to feeding livestock, then is the agri-food system not already prone to pest and disease in this way? This should be clarified in the article.

Secondly, the article needs a thorough edit and proof-read (for style rather than technical adherence to English conventions) before being published. There were many sentences in this version which were extremely long, and the point being made unclear. A good example of this comes in the conclusion:

"The plant-only based ideology is still in a juvenile stage and the number of plant-based-only consumers (mostly in developing regions of the world) is comparatively far smaller as compared to non-vegan consumers currently hence, the ideology undoubtedly will reduce GHG emissions immensely, provide enough and varied sources of healthy food and nutrition but may compromise water and land resources as well as biodiversity."

That is an extremely long and unclear sentence, and it takes several attempts to understand what the authors are trying to say. It also points to the fact that the authors appear (?) to use the phrase "developing (nations/regions)", when I presume they actually mean "developed".

Author Response

Dear Editor and Reviewer,

Please find enclosed our revised version R1 of the manuscript Agriculture-1870599.

The manuscript R1 version has been checked and improved according to your comments and suggestions with the active track change option.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The article addresses a topic relevant to discussion both scientifically and in debate at policy tables. 

It needs some minor corrections before being published. 

Regarding the environmental impact part, I would also include the following reference 

B. Coluccia, G.P. Agnusdei, F. De Leo, Y. Vecchio, C.M. La Fata, P.P. Miglietta, Assessing the carbon footprint across the supply chain: cow milk vs soy drink, Science of The Total Environment, Volume 806, Part 3, 2022, 151200, ISSN 0048-9697, https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151200.

In terms of the rest of the analysis, it would be interesting to be able to also explore the social impact that a transition would cause. In anthropological, cultural terms: the connection that exists between man and nature, between man and the culinary tradition of a particular place, think about the connection of some parts of rural Europe with the livestock sector, which is only partly nutritive, but more often an integral part of the cultural formation of the individual himself. In addition, the part of breaking down the hedonistic function of food could be explored further.

In case it is complex to fit it into the constructed narrative, it is recommended to include it as a simple reflection in the concluding part of the article. 

Author Response

Dear Editor and Reviewer,

Please find enclosed our revised version R1 of the manuscript Agriculture-1870599.

The manuscript R1 version has been checked and improved according to your comments and suggestions with active track change option.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx