Dietary Shift Could Mitigate Approximately 30% Food‐Related Land Use and Species Loss in China

ABSTRACT China's rapid dietary transition is intensifying pressures on land resources and biodiversity loss. However, the comprehensive lifecycle land use impacts of food consumption, the associated biodiversity loss stemming from land conversion, and the potential for mitigation through dietary optimization remain largely unquantified in a systematic manner. Here, this study integrates a multi‐regional input‐output (MRIO) model with biodiversity characterization factors to systematically quantify the land footprints of four land use types, and the associated potential species loss (PSL) induced by Chinese food consumption from 1997 to 2017, including impacts embodied in interprovincial trade. Our results show that livestock meat constitutes the predominant driver, accounting for over 50% of China's total land footprint and precipitating 15.15 million hectares of pasture expansion over two decades. This land use change disproportionately threatens plants (65% of total PSL) and amphibians (41% of animal PSL), with impacts being highly concentrated; 79% of the national PSL occurred in five provinces in 2017. Importantly, interprovincial trade externalizes over 90% of PSL from consumption centers to production regions. Transitioning to optimized dietary patterns offers substantial mitigation potential compared to currently recommended diets, capable of reducing the national land footprint by 30%–35%, PSL by 27%–31%, and virtual land transfers via trade by 24%–41%. This research provides a scientific foundation for formulating region‐specific sustainable dietary policies, crucial for reconciling national food security objectives with concurrent land conservation and biodiversity protection imperatives.