Do vegan alternatives have environmental problems too?

Vegan Food Environmental Problems: Almonds, Avocados & More

Summary

No plant food is impact-free, but the comparison isn't close — and it's provable, not just asserted. Animal agriculture uses about 83% of the world's farmland and causes 56-58% of food's greenhouse emissions while delivering only 18% of our calories and 37% of our protein (Poore & Nemecek, 2018, Science) — because routing crops through animals wastes most of their energy (only ~12% of the crop calories fed to livestock return as food; Cassidy et al., 2013). So even the highest-footprint plant foods (almonds, avocados) use far less land and cause far fewer emissions than the animal products they replace — and, compared serving-for-serving with what they actually replace (like dairy), less water too. The biggest "vegan" culprit people cite — soy — is overwhelmingly grown to feed livestock (~77% of global soy), not eaten by vegans. Choosing oat or soy milk over almond trims your footprint further, but the net picture was never in doubt.

Supported by 3 cited sources

Key Points

1No food is impact-free, and honest engagement with veganism requires acknowledging the environmental costs of plant-based alternatives rather than pretending they do not exist.
2The most comprehensive meta-analysis of food systems to date, covering 38,700 farms and 1,600 processors across 119 countries, found that even the lowest-impact animal products typically exceed the environmental costs of plant-based alternatives across multiple metrics — greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water use, and eutrophication (Poore & Nemecek, 2018).
3Approximately 77% of global soy production is used for livestock feed, and only about 7% is eaten directly by humans (Our World in Data / Ritchie, 2021).
4What you eat matters far more than where it comes from.

Evidence Summary

Water use: the almond question

Almond milk has become a lightning rod for criticism. California almonds require roughly 3.2 liters of water per almond, and the state produces about 80% of the global supply during persistent drought conditions (Fulton et al., 2019). This is a legitimate concern — but also a red herring when aimed at vegans: almonds are eaten across all diets, almond milk contains only a small handful of almonds per liter, and nobody eats almonds by the kilogram the way beef is eaten by the pound. Context matters: producing one liter of dairy milk requires approximately 628 liters of water on a global average, while one liter of almond milk requires roughly 371 liters (Poore & Nemecek, 2018). Oat milk and soy milk perform even better, at approximately 48 and 28 liters per liter respectively (Poore & Nemecek, 2018). The water footprint of almonds is real, but it is smaller than the dairy alternative, and consumers can choose lower-impact plant milks if water use is a priority.

Mekonnen and Hoekstra (2011) mapped global water footprints and found that animal products dominate water consumption in food systems. Beef requires approximately 15,400 liters of water per kilogram of product. Even a famously thirsty crop like rice (~2,500 L/kg) sits far below beef; raw almonds are water-intensive per kilogram, but they are a garnish eaten in small amounts, not a staple eaten by the pound.

Land use: avocados and tropical commodities

Avocado demand has driven illegal deforestation in Michoacan, Mexico, where pine forests are cleared for orchards (Denvir, 2020). This is a genuine environmental harm linked to global demand patterns. Similarly, tropical fruits like mangoes, bananas, and coconuts require significant land and transportation infrastructure.

However, the single largest driver of global deforestation is animal agriculture — primarily cattle ranching and soy cultivation for animal feed. When critics point to "soy deforestation" as a vegan problem, they are largely describing an animal agriculture problem.

Shipping and food miles

Imported plant foods do carry a transportation footprint. However, transport typically accounts for less than 10% of a food's total greenhouse gas emissions (Poore & Nemecek, 2018). A locally raised beef steak produces substantially more emissions than lentils shipped from Canada or tofu shipped from East Asia.

Key sources

Poore J, Nemecek T (2018). "Reducing food's environmental impacts through producers and consumers." Science. 360(6392):987-992.
Mekonnen MM, Hoekstra AY (2011). "The green, blue and grey water footprint of farm animals and animal products." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. 15(5):1577-1600.
Fulton J, et al. (2019). "Water-indexed benefits and impacts of California almonds." Ecological Indicators. 96:711-717.
Denvir A (2020). "The commodification of nature." Routledge.

Supporting Evidence

Based on Poore & Nemecek (2018) meta-analysis of 38,700 farms and Springmann et al. (2018) global modeling.

Sources:

Ritchie H (Our World in Data). Drivers of Deforestation (soy: 77% to livestock, 7% to direct human food) (2021)

The Bottom Line

This does not mean every plant food is sustainable. It means that shifting from animal products to plant-based alternatives generally reduces environmental impact, even when accounting for the real costs of water-intensive nuts, tropical imports, and processed alternatives.

Practical Takeaways

Choose lower-impact plant milks when possible: oat and soy outperform almond and rice on water use
Buy seasonal and regional produce where feasible, but do not overweight "food miles" relative to production emissions
Recognize that "vegan" and "sustainable" are not synonyms — a diet of imported processed vegan convenience foods is less sustainable than a diet built around local legumes, grains, and seasonal vegetables
Maintain perspective: reducing or eliminating animal products remains the single largest dietary change an individual can make to reduce environmental footprint