Vegan Egg Products Help Chickens And The Environment
The majority of land animals farmed and slaughtered in the U.S. are chickens. What’s more, these animals live the short duration of their lives in stressful, unsanitary, and inhumane conditions on factory farms. As a result, encouraging people to choose vegan chicken and egg products is a priority for many animal advocates.
In this paper, the authors used the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) as a case study to explore how many chicken lives could be saved, and how the climate would fare, by switching to plant-based egg substitutes. UCSB enacted a dining program in 2016 that replaced egg-based mayo with plant-based mayo. The authors created different scenarios to explore how switching to plant-based mayo, as well as switching 50% of egg breakfasts with tofu, would impact animals and the environment (for example, they looked at the impacts across different campuses or even if everyone in the U.S. made such a change).
To make their estimates, the researchers collected data on how much egg-based mayo was used at UCSB and analyzed information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other sources about how many chickens are used (and how they’re treated) in the egg industry. It’s important to note that they based their research on several assumptions. For example, they assumed that first-year students eat three meals per day on campus, while other community members eat only lunch on campus. They also assumed that eggs are only eaten at breakfast. Because of this, the authors note that their estimates may be slightly low.
They found that, from birth until the end of their laying ability, 6.3 chickens would be needed to produce 1000 eggs. This figure was higher than what the authors would have found if they didn’t account for male chicks and females killed before laying eggs. This means that when people reduce their egg consumption, they actually save more lives than people might assume.
In one year at the UCSB plant-based mayo program, 14 chicken lives were saved. The program also helped the environment, reducing .11 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions, keeping 4 kilograms of reactive nitrogen from entering the atmosphere, and preserving 14 cubic meters of water. If all University of California campuses enacted the plant-based mayo switch, an additional 924 chicken lives could be saved.
Furthermore, if all first-year students across all University of California campuses switched 50% of their egg breakfasts with tofu, it would save 9,245 chicken lives, preserve 8213 cubic meters of water, reduce 85 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions, and prevent the release of 2,627 kilograms of harmful nitrogen.
The impact could be 43 times greater if all people associated with the University of California substituted 50% of eggs with tofu, and 127 times greater if their households did also. If everyone in the U.S. made a 50% egg-to-tofu breakfast switch, 46 billion fewer eggs would be produced per year.
Facts And Figures At A Glance
The authors make a few suggestions to support egg reduction, especially on college campuses. For example, animal advocates can focus on making plant-based options more visible and desirable, for example by promoting them on menus and describing them in appealing ways. Advocates can also make sure students and faculty have access to information about the importance of choosing plant-based egg products. Finally, they recommend making vegan eggs the default on campus menus.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-020-10148-z