Editing Plant-based diet (section)

== Motivation and prevalence ==
As of the early 21st century, some 4&nbsp;billion people are estimated to live primarily on a plant-based diet, some by choice and some because of limits caused by shortages of crops, fresh water, and energy resources.<ref name="pim">{{cite journal | vauthors = Pimentel D, Pimentel M | title = Sustainability of meat-based and plant-based diets and the environment | journal = The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition | volume = 78 | issue = 3 Suppl | pages = 660S–663S | date = September 2003 | pmid = 12936963 | doi = 10.1093/ajcn/78.3.660S |url=https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/78/3/660S/4690010 | quote = Worldwide, an estimated 2 billion people live primarily on a meat-based diet, while an estimated 4 billion live primarily on a plant-based diet. The shortages of cropland, fresh water, and energy resources require most of the 4 billion people to live on a plant-based diet | doi-access = free }}</ref> Main motivations to follow a plant-based diet appear to be health aspirations, taste, animal welfare, environmental concern, and weight loss.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Miki |first1=Akari J. |last2=Livingston |first2=Kara A. |last3=Karlsen |first3=Micaela C. |last4=Folta |first4=Sara C. |last5=McKeown |first5=Nicola M. |date=March 2020 |title=Using Evidence Mapping to Examine Motivations for Following Plant-Based Diets |journal=Current Developments in Nutrition |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=nzaa013 |doi=10.1093/cdn/nzaa013 |issn=2475-2991 |pmc=7042611 |pmid=32110769}}</ref> In the U.S.A., people take [[individual action on climate change]] through their diet. Twenty-six per cent of those who eat a plant-based diet because they are "alarmed" about global warming — defined by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication as those who are "convinced global warming is happening, human-caused, an urgent threat"  — and twenty-seven per cent eat a plant-based diet because they are "concerned" — they believe global warming is a real and serious threat and that humans are causing it, but they think climate impacts remain far enough in the future that they are a lower priority issue.<ref>{{cite web |title=Global Warming's Six Americas |url=https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/about/projects/global-warmings-six-americas/ |website=Yale Program on Climate Change Communication |access-date=30 September 2023}}</ref>