Biodiversity footprints of 151 popular dishes from around the world

Discussion Dishes with beef as the main ingredient (e.g. picanha, fraldinha (both beef cuts), chili con carne (spicy stew with chili peppers, beef and beans), and beef tartare (raw ground beef dish) were frequently top dishes in terms of biodiversity footprint under all three biodiversity indi- cators in all scenarios. In addition, we found a consistent significantly lower biodiversity foot- print for vegan and vegetarian dishes compared to dishes containing meat. These results agree with previous studies finding a lower environmental impact associated with meatless diets [36]. The high biodiversity footprint associated with feedlot-grown beef is explained because cows have a less efficient and below-average feed conversion ratio as compared to the other animals [37]. For pasture-grown beef, it is also a result of cows requiring a large grazing area per unit of meat produced. Under the locally produced scenario, the fact that the dishes originated from Brazil, further explained the dishes’ high biodiversity footprint. This result is explained by Brazil playing a major role in global markets for animal feeds such as soy [38]. Furthermore, following the rise in demand for animal feed in the late 1990s, the production of such feeds has since expanded into biodiversity hotspots such as the Cerrado which is not part of the Soy Moratorium and remains unprotected from land use change through soy agriculture [39]. This is in addition to the Amazon Forest which is greatly affected by land-use change from animal feed agriculture

[40, 41]. For pasture-grown beef dishes, the high biodiversity footprint is likely due to Brazil’s land conversion within its biodiversity hotspots such as Cerrado and the Amazon Forest into pasturelands mainly to produce beef [42, 43]. This situation is further exacerbated by Brazil Fig 3. Bottom 20 dishes with the lowest biodiversity footprint (per 10 Gg) for all three biodiversity indicators. Scenario a) feedlot-grown locally produced, b) feedlot-grown globally produced, c) pasture-grown locally produced, and d) pasture-grown globally produced. Plot symbols and colours represent diet and dishes’ region of origin, respectively. Missing values in panels c) and d) occur for vegan dishes for which the pasture-grown scenarios are not relevant. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296492.g003 PLOS ONE Biodiversity footprint of popular dishes PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296492 February 21, 2024 9 / 15