Eco Lifestyle
Reporting, analysis and practical guides on Eco Lifestyle. Part of Humane Foundation's coverage of plant-based living, animal welfare, climate and sustainability across 22 languages.
Other desks
Understand the evidence in this desk
Environmental comparisons depend on the unit, place and production system studied. Animal-welfare claims also need species-specific evidence and local law. Read methods and dates before applying a finding to a different setting.
Reference sources
- Factory farm (CAFO)
- A concentrated animal feeding operation: a facility that confines large numbers of animals indoors at high stocking density, relying on imported feed rather than pasture.
- Sentience
- The capacity to have subjective experiences such as pain, fear or pleasure. Sentience is the usual scientific threshold for saying an animal's interests matter morally.
- CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent)
- A common unit that converts methane, nitrous oxide and other greenhouse gases into the amount of CO2 that would cause the same warming, so different food systems can be compared.
- Land-use change
- Conversion of forest, savannah or wetland into cropland or pasture. Most agricultural land-use change emissions worldwide are driven by grazing and feed crops.