Changes in meat consumption can improve groundwater quality

Yang Zhan; Zhilin Guo; Joel Podgorski; Zhengzhong Zeng; Peng Xu; Liqing Peng; Kewei Chen; Rixin Wu; Chen Ding; Charles Andrews; Vladan Babovic; Chunmiao Zheng

doi:10.1038/s43016-025-01188-x

Changes in meat consumption can improve groundwater quality

Yang Zhan
, Zhilin Guo
, Joel Podgorski
, Zhengzhong Zeng
, Peng Xu
, Liqing Peng
, Kewei Chen
, Rixin Wu
, Chen Ding
, Charles Andrews
, Vladan Babovic
, Chunmiao Zheng

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Large-scale, centralized livestock production is recognized as a significant contributor to environmental pollution, including groundwater contamination. Here we assess the impact of traditional meat production on nitrate contamination in groundwater across the contiguous USA from 1985 to 2020. In addition, we evaluate potential changes in groundwater quality resulting from the substitution of traditional meat sources with three alternative meat options. We find that substituting 10% of the protein intake from conventional meat sources with meat alternatives can lead to an average reduction of 3.4%, 10.7% and 4.5% in the required nitrogen fertilizer, manure and water footprint, respectively. This substitution could potentially decrease the risk of groundwater nitrate exceedance (concentration exceeding 10 mg l⁻¹ as N) by up to ~20%. These results highlight the potential of long-term dietary shifts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 and support other SDG targets.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	703-714
Number of pages	12
Journal	Nature Food
Volume	6
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01188-x
State	Published - Jul 2025
Externally published	Yes

Funding

This research was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (grant number 2021YFC3200502 to Z.G.), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 42377045 to Z.G.), the Guangdong Provincial Basic and Applied Basic Research Fund (grant number 2024B1515020038 to Z.G.), Guangdong-Hong Kong Joint Laboratory for Soil and Groundwater Pollution Control (grant number 2023B1212120001 to Z.G. and C.Z.), High-level University Special Funds (grant numbers G03050K001 and G030290001 to Z.G.), the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) (AVARIs project, grant number SI-501914-01 to J.P.), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) (WABES project, grant number 7F-09963.02.01 to J.P.) and the Center for Computational Science and Engineering of Southern University of Science and Technology.

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10.1038/s43016-025-01188-x

Cite this

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title = "Changes in meat consumption can improve groundwater quality",

abstract = "Large-scale, centralized livestock production is recognized as a significant contributor to environmental pollution, including groundwater contamination. Here we assess the impact of traditional meat production on nitrate contamination in groundwater across the contiguous USA from 1985 to 2020. In addition, we evaluate potential changes in groundwater quality resulting from the substitution of traditional meat sources with three alternative meat options. We find that substituting 10\% of the protein intake from conventional meat sources with meat alternatives can lead to an average reduction of 3.4\%, 10.7\% and 4.5\% in the required nitrogen fertilizer, manure and water footprint, respectively. This substitution could potentially decrease the risk of groundwater nitrate exceedance (concentration exceeding 10 mg l−1 as N) by up to \textasciitilde{}20\%. These results highlight the potential of long-term dietary shifts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 and support other SDG targets.",

author = "Yang Zhan and Zhilin Guo and Joel Podgorski and Zhengzhong Zeng and Peng Xu and Liqing Peng and Kewei Chen and Rixin Wu and Chen Ding and Charles Andrews and Vladan Babovic and Chunmiao Zheng",

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doi = "10.1038/s43016-025-01188-x",

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T1 - Changes in meat consumption can improve groundwater quality

AU - Zhan, Yang

AU - Guo, Zhilin

AU - Podgorski, Joel

AU - Zeng, Zhengzhong

AU - Xu, Peng

AU - Peng, Liqing

AU - Chen, Kewei

AU - Wu, Rixin

AU - Ding, Chen

AU - Andrews, Charles

AU - Babovic, Vladan

AU - Zheng, Chunmiao

PY - 2025/7

Y1 - 2025/7

N2 - Large-scale, centralized livestock production is recognized as a significant contributor to environmental pollution, including groundwater contamination. Here we assess the impact of traditional meat production on nitrate contamination in groundwater across the contiguous USA from 1985 to 2020. In addition, we evaluate potential changes in groundwater quality resulting from the substitution of traditional meat sources with three alternative meat options. We find that substituting 10% of the protein intake from conventional meat sources with meat alternatives can lead to an average reduction of 3.4%, 10.7% and 4.5% in the required nitrogen fertilizer, manure and water footprint, respectively. This substitution could potentially decrease the risk of groundwater nitrate exceedance (concentration exceeding 10 mg l−1 as N) by up to ~20%. These results highlight the potential of long-term dietary shifts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 and support other SDG targets.

AB - Large-scale, centralized livestock production is recognized as a significant contributor to environmental pollution, including groundwater contamination. Here we assess the impact of traditional meat production on nitrate contamination in groundwater across the contiguous USA from 1985 to 2020. In addition, we evaluate potential changes in groundwater quality resulting from the substitution of traditional meat sources with three alternative meat options. We find that substituting 10% of the protein intake from conventional meat sources with meat alternatives can lead to an average reduction of 3.4%, 10.7% and 4.5% in the required nitrogen fertilizer, manure and water footprint, respectively. This substitution could potentially decrease the risk of groundwater nitrate exceedance (concentration exceeding 10 mg l−1 as N) by up to ~20%. These results highlight the potential of long-term dietary shifts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 and support other SDG targets.

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SN - 2662-1355

VL - 6

SP - 703

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JO - Nature Food

JF - Nature Food

IS - 7

ER -

Changes in meat consumption can improve groundwater quality

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