Bad News Meat Eaters: We’ll All Be Vegetarians By 2050

Bad news for the carnivorous 30% of the population who won’t date vegetarians. Turns out, with an expected boom in world population, we might all end up reaching for tofu and salad by 2050.

About 40 years from now, some of the world’s foremost water experts say that the planet will have to trim its meat-based diet from about 20% to a measly 5%. Consumption of animal-based products will require a decrease due to the expected 2 billion more people who are predicted to populate the Earth by 2050. In short, we need to figure out in the next 40 years how to get more food out of our existing land and water. A vegetarian diet is the likeliest of outcomes, since it uses five to 10 times less water than animal-based food products, according to the Guardian.

“There will not be enough water available on current croplands to produce food for the expected 9 billion population in 2050 if we follow current trends and changes towards diets common in western nations,” the report by Malik Falkenmark and colleagues at the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) said. “There will be just enough water if the proportion of animal-based foods is limited to 5% of total calories and considerable regional water deficits can be met by a … reliable system of food trade.”

Grim news for Sunday barbecues nationwide.

Additionally, the reports details UN predictions that the planet must increase food production by 70% toward 2050. Our already-stretched water resources won’t see just a dramatic alteration to our daily diets, either. Additionally, there’s the global energy demand to look forward to as well, which is predicted to rise by 60% over the next 30 years. Then, of course, there are the 1.3 billion people currently living without electricity.

So get used to the taste of tofu now, if you’re in it for the long haul. We’re not saying you have to like it – we’re just saying you’ll probably need to live on it.