19 September, 2025

You may have heard about food miles and carbon labelling, but have you ever considered the impact of what you eat on species extinction? 

Research published last week unpicks the biodiversity impacts of the food system. It quantifies these impacts by linking food consumption data to the impact of land-cover change on the extinction risk of around 30,000 animal species. 

While the model isn’t a complete representation – it only looks at the impact from land use change and habitat destruction, for example – the findings are stark. There is significant variation between different food items, and within food items due to regional variation. The biggest impact comes from ruminant meat (beef, lamb, etc.) which has a median impact 100 times higher than that of legumes and pulses when accounting for protein. Generally, food produced in tropical or sub-tropical regions have higher impacts than those from temperate regions due to varying levels of biodiversity and endemism. It’s not such a cheery picture for ‘luxury crops’ such as coffee, cocoa and spices for this reason, although consumption volumes of these are generally low. 

There are plenty of interesting findings in the research. But we think it’s particularly interesting given the challenges in quantifying biodiversity impacts, which can make it hard to link practical everyday changes all the way down the line to species extinction.  

This research is helping join the dots, in a way that is impactful, and has relevance for all of us. 

By Patrick Bapty