A plant-based food system can require less cropland as well as less pasture

Replacing animal products with crops sounds as though it should increase demand for fields. The accounting changes once animal feed is included: livestock already consumes crops, with substantial losses between feed and edible output.

The scenario summarized here estimates a large reduction in total agricultural land if diets became entirely plant-based. It is a modeled counterfactual, not a forecast of what people will choose to eat.

The article also addresses a valid objection: much pasture cannot grow crops. Its argument does not require turning every hillside into a bean field. Land no longer needed for grazing could instead support other ecosystems. The interesting comparison is between whole food systems, including indirect land use, rather than between a plate of vegetables and a plate of meat in isolation.