Policy and Welfare

Vegan Diet and Animal Welfare: Evidence Overview

Plant-based diets significantly reduce individual demand for animal products, with direct welfare benefits for farmed animals at scale.

Key Facts

A vegan diet eliminates demand for approximately 100+ farmed animals per year per person
Dietary shifts are among the highest-impact personal actions for farmed animal welfare
Plant-based protein production causes substantially fewer animal deaths per calorie than meat
Eggs and dairy involve welfare concerns separate from direct slaughter that veganism also addresses

Welfare Considerations

Individual dietary choice aggregated across millions of people creates real market signals that affect production volumes and farming practices. The welfare benefit is not hypothetical — reduced demand for products with high welfare costs directly decreases the number of animals in those systems. Incremental reduction is also meaningful, particularly when focused on highest-welfare-cost categories.

What You Can Do

Reduce consumption of high-welfare-cost animal products as a priority if not eliminating all
Explore plant-based alternatives to your most frequently consumed animal products
Share welfare evidence when discussing dietary choices rather than leading with ethics
Support institutional food service transitions toward higher-welfare and plant-based options