The executive summary of the European Nitrogen Assessment Special Report on Nitrogen and Food, Nitrogen on the Table, was released on 25 April 2014. The Special Report shows how much cutting down on meat and dairy in our diets would

• reduce nitrogen air pollution
• reduce nitrogen water pollution,
• reduce greenhouse gas emissions,

while freeing up large areas of farmland for other purposes such as

• food export
• or bioenergy.

It also considers the

The new report quantifies for the first time how much our food choices affect pollutant nitrogen emissions, climate change and land-use across Europe. The work has been conducted by the Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The full report is published in May 2014.

In 2011 the Task Force produced the first European Nitrogen Assessment (ENA). It showed that better nitrogen management will help reduce air, water, and soil pollution and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Simultaneously it will reduce threats to human health, threats to biodiversity and threats to global food security.

Report lead author Henk Westhoek, programme manager for Agriculture and Food at PBL (the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency) said, “The report shows that the nitrogen footprint of meat and dairy is considerably higher than that from plant-based products. If all people within the EU would halve their meat and dairy consumption, this would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture by 25 to 40%, and nitrogen emissions by 40%.The EU could become a major exporter of food products, instead of a major importer of for example soy beans.”

Prof Mark Sutton, an environmental physicist at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and a co-author of the report, said, "Humans' use of nitrogen is a major societal challenge that links environment, food security, and human health. There are many ways in which society could improve the way it uses nitrogen, and this includes actions by farmers and by ourselves.