Agriculture has already caused the loss of an estimated 300 billion tonnes of stored carbon and put around 14% of species at risk of extinction through land conversion. The carbon lost from converted ecosystems is equivalent to around 140 years of agricultural emissions at today's rates. Much of this damage is concentrated across parts of South America, sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia. Half of all carbon loss comes from just 12% of farmland, suggesting that focusing restoration efforts on these areas could deliver benefits for both climate and biodiversity. Animal-sourced foods account for most of agriculture's environmental damage while providing a relatively small share of the world's calories. Beef and dairy have by far the greatest impact, contributing 29% of total carbon loss and 41% of biodiversity loss because producing them requires so much land. On average, animal-sourced foods are associated with eight times more carbon loss and 14 times more biodiversity loss per calorie than plant-sourced foods.
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