From tomorrow all vegetarians ... What would happen?

An article published on BBC Future imagine this improbable scenario, which would have much different impact on different areas of the Earth. "It would be literally a tale of two worlds," says Andrew Jarvis, of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia. "In the

industrialized countries, vegetarianism would bring all sorts of environmental benefit and health. In those developing there would be negative effects in terms of poverty. "

BENEFITS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT. Food production is responsible for a portion ranging from a third to a quarter of the total anthropogenic greenhouse gases, mainly because livestock animal (for methane emissions from manure and CO2 attributable to the entire supply chain of meat processing).

Marco Springmann, a researcher at Oxford University, has calculated that if all the world would stop eating meat by 2050, emissions from food production would fall by 60% (70% if we become all vegan). An extreme scenario which nevertheless gives environmental impact because of the consumption of red meat.

CONVERSION. Moreover, 68% of the 5 billion hectares of potentially arable land is now used for breeding. All becoming vegetarian, we could convert at least 80% of these areas to agricultural land for our livelihood, restoring the vegetation on them which would also help to sequester CO2. Recupereremmo even so the percentage of land - one-third of those grown - now used to produce animal feed.

ECONOMIC meltdown. But would not a simple process: transform into those fields now impoverished lands would require a considerable effort, and should replace all those working in the livestock sector. Not to mention the disastrous effects that the disappearance of grazing animals - 3.5 billion ruminants worldwide - would mean in terms of biodiversity and the global economy.