This year’s World Environment Day is a day of ongoing discussions by the UN and other world leaders on the food crisis, concluding in Rome today. How times have changed since World Environment Day was launched by the UN 36 years ago. I wonder if they considered then that today climate change and other environmental impacts would have such an impact on world hunger.

Most countries and international organisations recognise that there are many causes for the food crisis, which includes climate change and the use of biofuels. Biofuels have been backed by many governments as a solution to climate change but have, in reality, only caused the destruction of forests and human rights violations.

However, the UN have stated that they do not believe biofuels are the main culprit in the food crisis and instead point at factors such as the increased demand for meat and dairy. When you look at the figures, their conclusion makes absolute sense; 100 million tonnes of grains are used for biofuels each year, whereas 760 million tonnes are fed to animals, therefore, if globally we reduced our consumption of meat and dairy by 14%, we would have enough grains for biofuels without destroying more forests. Imagine the impact on world hunger and climate change if we reduced our meat and dairy consumption by 100%.

The UN have long talked about the impacts of animal agriculture. The UN agency, Food and Agriculture Association, produced the report Livestock’s Long Shadow in 2006 which stated that animal agriculture is accountable for 18% of all greenhouse gases, more than the world’s transport systems.

Head of the UN climate agency, Yvo de Boer, recently said “the best solution would be for us all to become vegetarians”. I hope that the UN sticks to their guns and promotes vegetarianism and veganism as a real solution to climate change and world hunger.

A draft copy of the summit declaration, to be finalised today in Rome, ends with a pledge to use the planet’s resources in a sustainable way. We know that feeding our crops to animals is the least sustainable and efficient use of our food, so a proposal to encourage the transition to a vegan diet is the obvious solution.