Richard Branson reveals why he gave up meat

Richard Branson has recently revealed the reason behind not eating meat and becoming a vegetarian.

The 64-year-old wrote in a blog about producing food for future generations as part of World Food Day and mentioned that many people have now recognized that conventional meat production could have truly devastating environmental impacts, Stuff.co.nz reported.

And if more people would do the same, then everybody would be healthier, and it would help sustain the beautiful biodiversity that was being ruined in the rainforests, he further added.

Branson was referring to the increasing demand for meat as the world's population of 7 billion grows and the impact this has on the environment and about 40 per cent of the world's land has been used to support livestock, driving deforestation.

And with agriculture responsible for between 15 and 18 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, there might be no other single human activity that has a bigger impact on the planet than the raising of livestock.