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Humane Foundation

Por los animales. Por el planeta. Por todos.

Un mundo más amable empieza en tu plato.

Cada año se matan más de 80 mil millones de animales terrestres — y billones de animales marinos — para alimentación. Cambiar a plantas es la mayor palanca individual para hacer el mundo más amable, fresco y verde.

Since you opened this page

0

land animals killed for food worldwide

0

fish & marine animals killed worldwide

The problem

The quiet cost of how we eat

Most of this happens behind closed doors. The farms have no public address, the trucks travel at night, and the slaughterhouses sit on the edge of towns we never visit. By the time the meat reaches the plate, it is unrecognisable. This isn't an accusation — it's an invitation. When people see clearly, they choose differently.

Four reasons

Why people make the shift

For the animals

Over 80 billion land animals — and trillions of aquatic animals — are killed for food each year. Most never see the sun. Choosing plants withdraws our consent from a system most of us would never approve of in person.

For the planet

The largest study of food systems (Poore & Nemecek, Science 2018) found that moving to a plant-based diet is the single biggest action an individual can take to reduce environmental impact — cutting food-related land use by 76% and emissions by up to 49%.

For your health

Decades of research — Adventist Health Studies, EPIC-Oxford, PREDIMED — keep landing on the same conclusion. People who eat mostly plants live longer, with less heart disease, less type-2 diabetes, and lower rates of several cancers.

For each other

A third of the world's grain is grown to feed farmed animals. Redirected to humans, it could nourish billions more people. Plant-based food systems are simply more efficient — and a fairer way to share a finite planet.

By the numbers

Is plant-based really better for the planet?

80%

of global farmland is used for animal agriculture

26%

of global greenhouse-gas emissions come from food systems

27%

of freshwater goes to livestock and their feed

80%

of Amazon deforestation is linked to cattle

Sources: Poore & Nemecek, Science (2018); Crippa et al. (2021); FAO; Mekonnen & Hoekstra water-footprint estimates.

Voices

A movement of quiet conviction

The question is not, 'Can they reason?' nor, 'Can they talk?' but rather, 'Can they suffer?'
Jeremy Bentham, 1789
Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.
Albert Einstein
A plant-based diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth.
Joseph Poore, Oxford, 2018

Your pocket ally

VeggieOS — la app gratis que facilita ser vegano.

Scan any food, cosmetic or household product and see instantly whether it's vegan, vegetarian and cruelty-free. Get plant-based alternatives when it isn't, plus a recipe converter, weekly meal planner, pantry tracker and personal impact dashboard.

  • Barcode scanner for ingredients & cruelty-free status
  • Meal planner, recipes & pantry tracker
  • See your real animal, water, land & CO₂e impact
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Join us

Small choices, built into habits, become a movement.

Real change rarely arrives in one dramatic moment. It accumulates — meal by meal, label by label, conversation by conversation. Take the next honest step you can. We'll meet you there.

Contexto en profundidad

La evidencia detrás del sistema alimentario

Animal agriculture sits at the intersection of climate, land use, water, public health and animal welfare. These reference points recur across our reporting, so we keep them in one place: the numbers most often cited, the way we read a claim, the myths that survive longest, and the vocabulary you need to follow the debate in any language.

Datos de referencia

~80 billion
land animals farmed and slaughtered each year worldwide
~14.5%
share of global greenhouse gas emissions linked to livestock supply chains
~77%
of agricultural land used for grazing and feed production
~70%
of freshwater withdrawals worldwide go to agriculture
Rows of crops on farmland at dawn, with mist and treeline in the distance

La tierra es la clave

Roughly three quarters of global farmland is used for livestock, yet it supplies a minority of the world's calories. Shifting even part of that land back to crops, forest or wetland is the single largest lever most countries hold.

Cómo leer una afirmación en cinco pasos

  1. 01Find the original sourceTrace the figure back to a study, dataset or public record rather than a headline restating it.
  2. 02Check the boundaryAsk what the number counts: farm gate only, or land use, feed, transport and processing too.
  3. 03Compare like with likePer kilogram, per gram of protein and per calorie can point in different directions.
  4. 04Look for the rangeCredible estimates come with uncertainty; a single precise-sounding figure often hides it.
  5. 05Ask who is affectedAnimals, workers, neighbouring communities and future readers all carry part of the cost.

Mito y evidencia

Afirmación habitualLo que muestra la evidenciaPor qué importa
Local food is always the lowest-carbon choiceTransport is a small share of most food footprints; what is produced matters more than how far it travelled.It redirects effort towards the choices with real leverage.
Plant-based eating cannot meet protein needsLegumes, grains, soy foods, nuts and seeds cover protein and amino-acid needs in well-planned diets at every life stage.Nutrition myths keep people from a change they were open to.
Higher-welfare labels mean animals are not harmedLabel standards vary widely and many permit routine practices readers would not expect.Informed choices depend on knowing what a label actually certifies.
Individual choices are irrelevant next to policyDemand shifts change what is produced, funded and legislated; the two move together.It replaces fatalism with something you can act on this week.

Vocabulario del debate

Factory farming
Intensive confinement systems that maximise output per animal and per unit of space.
Life-cycle assessment
A method that totals environmental impact across every stage of a product's life.
Sentience
The capacity to feel, perceive and experience — the basis of most animal-welfare law.
Land-use change
Conversion of forest, grassland or wetland into farmland, and the emissions it releases.
Food-system resilience
How well supply survives drought, disease and price shocks.
Just transition
Policy that protects farmers and workers while production shifts.

Boletín semanal

Ideas de largo aliento, cada domingo.

Un envío por semana con lo más sustancioso de todas las secciones. Gratis.