How the eating habits of a limited group of Americans determine sustainability

Masses of hamburgers, steaks, cheese and a lot of eggs: Americans love their animal products. But researcher Oliver Taherzadeh discovered that only a relatively small group of high-volume consumers need to modify their diet to achieve an enormous environmental gain. The day on which we have used up all the biological resources that the Earth can regenerate in a year, Earth Overshoot Day, was this year 28 July. For the Dutch, this would be 12 April, and for Americans 13 March. Americans have the biggest ecological footprint in terms of food consumption; if they were to consume more plant-based products and fewer animal products, the impact on the environment could be reduced considerably. Taherzadeh is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Environmental Sciences; he researched the impact American households could achieve by changing their eating habits. Moving smartly to a sustainable diet.