If you still ear meat you may be sick of hearing that cutting out meat is good for your diet, health, and particularly good for the planet. If none of those reasons weren’t enough to convince to give up the flesh then maybe saving money will do it:
- This 2022 study in Portugal found that vegan consumers spent the least among the groups examined.
- A 2025 Austrian study found that vegan diets can save up to 41% of shopping costs (225 euros) for a family of four.
- This 2021 German study found that monthly grocery bills for vegans cost 91 euros less compared to omnivorous diets, or about 11% less.
What’s more, getting people to switch to plant based proteins can make national economies more robust and better performing:
- This 2023 Nature study found that “a dietary shift away from animal-sourced foods could greatly reduce these ‘hidden’ costs, saving up to $7.3 trillion worth of production-related health burden and ecosystem degradation while curbing carbon emissions.”
- This 2016 study found that a global shift away from animal products could save “1–31 trillion US dollars, which is equivalent to 0.4–13% of global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2050.”
- This 2020 FAO report found that vegan diets could avoid $ 1.3 trillion in healthcare-related costs and between $0.8 and $1.3 trillion in climate change emissions mitigation. Bonus, the report found that “a vegan diet could save “13.7 (7.9-19.4) million avoidable deaths globally in 2030.”
- This 2024 report estimates that the NHS (England’s National Health Service) could save £2.2 billion in medical fees if the British population ate meat-free for weekday lunches.
- This 2024 report estimates that factory farming costs British taxpayers over £1.2 billion annually, in the form of subsidies, environmental pollution, respiratory illnesses, and lost farming jobs.
- A 2023 UK preprint estimates that if everyone in the UK adopted a plant-based diet, the NHS would save a total of £6.7 billion per year.
