The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) faces a stark paradox that becomes clearer every dry season: its population is young and expanding, yet its freshwater supply is disappearing faster than in any other region on Earth. Climate models warn that average summer temperatures could rise by another 4 °C by mid‑century, and renewable freshwater resources have already fallen to one‑tenth of the global average. Meanwhile, supermarket shelves in Cairo, Dubai, and Casablanca still overflow with imported beef, chicken, and dairy—foods that consume thousands of litres of water and depend on millions of tonnes of soy and maize shipped from abroad.
This article examines how a shift toward vegan nutrition could reduce environmental damage and promote sustainability across the MENA region.
1. The Hidden Thirst of Livestock
Water scarcity is already a critical issue, and the animal‑agriculture sector is a major driver of excessive use—especially in arid zones. Producing a single kilogram of beef requires roughly 15,000 litres of water when irrigation for feed crops is included. Broiler chicken is somewhat less demanding at about 4,300 litres per kilogram, but that figure is still staggering in countries where per‑capita freshwater availability has fallen below the “absolute scarcity” threshold of 500 m³ per year.
Saudi Arabia’s vast pivot‑irrigation wheat fields have largely been abandoned because deep aquifers ran dry; importing soy to feed livestock has only shifted the water burden to Brazil’s Cerrado and the Mississippi Basin. By contrast, plant foods—especially pulses native to the region such as lentils, chickpeas, and fava beans—require roughly one‑third of that water, thrive on marginal soils, and fix nitrogen that neighbouring crops can use.
Replacing a significant share of beef and poultry with these hardy legumes could save millions of cubic metres of water annually—enough to sustain date groves, recharge wetlands, or supply households directly.
2. Factory Farming: Antibiotics, Disease, and Environmental Fallout
Step inside a modern poultry shed near Cairo or Riyadh and you may find up to 50,000 birds in a single hall, with lights rarely dimmed and ventilation fans humming around the clock. Selective breeding pushes chicks to slaughter weight in just five or six weeks, but their immune systems cannot keep pace. Respiratory infections, enteric diseases, and skin lesions spread rapidly in damp litter saturated with ammonia.
Producers respond with daily—or even prophylactic—doses of antibiotics: macrolides, fluoroquinolones, and, in some cases, last‑line polymyxins. Residues of these drugs remain in meat and leach into soil and groundwater via manure, creating environmental reservoirs of antibiotic‑resistant E. coli, Salmonella, and Klebsiella. Hospitals already struggle to treat infections that shrug off first‑line therapies, and the World Health Organization warns that antimicrobial resistance could claim more lives in MENA than traffic accidents within a decade if current trends continue.
Small but measurable quantities of these chemicals are often detected in the meat itself. Regular consumption can contribute to antimicrobial resistance and may pose additional health risks over time. Eliminating—or at least drastically reducing—industrial animal farming would remove one of the region’s largest and least regulated sources of antibiotic pollution, ensuring that life‑saving drugs such as penicillin and ciprofloxacin remain effective for human patients.
3. Fish Farming and the By‑Catch Burden
Aquaculture is often promoted as a sustainable solution, yet floating pens along the Mediterranean and Red Sea can hold tens of thousands of fish in cramped conditions. Unconsumed feed and fish waste create anoxic “dead zones” beneath cages, while antibiotic and pesticide residues drift onto coral reefs already weakened by heat stress.
Wild‑capture methods are little better: purse‑seine nets aimed at sardines and tuna often entangle dolphins and turtles; longlines draw up sharks and rays critical to ecosystem balance. For every kilo of marketable fish landed, three to five kilos of non‑target marine life may be discarded—a hidden ecological toll that rarely reaches the consumer’s mind.
4. Climate and Land‑Use Arithmetic
Livestock contributes about 14 percent of global greenhouse‑gas emissions—more than every plane, truck, train, and ship on the planet combined. Methane from ruminants heats the atmosphere up to 28 times faster than CO₂ over a century. Shaving that methane spike is particularly valuable in hot, energy‑hungry cities where air‑conditioning already swallows half the summer power load.
Land use is equally stark. With local feed production curtailed by water scarcity, Gulf states now import soy and maize grown on land once blanketed by rainforest. A metric tonne of Brazilian soy effectively “carries” 200 m² of former forest with it. A diet rooted in pulses, grains, and regional produce would dramatically shrink the MENA region’s outsourced deforestation footprint and help keep remaining tropical forests—key carbon sinks—standing.
5. Human Health and Food Safety
Industrial animal farming concentrates contaminants further up the food chain. Cattle grazing near industrial complexes accumulate heavy metals such as cadmium and lead in their tissues and milk. Broiler chickens fed arsenic‑based growth promoters pass residues into meat. Fish high on the food chain often carry methylmercury that exceeds World Health Organization limits. Plants absorb pollutants too, but at far lower concentrations because they occupy the food web’s first rung.
Chronic diseases tell a similar story. MENA now records some of the world’s fastest‑rising rates of type‑2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, driven in part by diets heavy in saturated animal fat and low in fibre. Whole‑food vegan patterns supply viscous fibre that lowers LDL cholesterol, antioxidants that damp inflammation, and a mineral mix—magnesium, potassium, folate—that supports blood‑pressure control.
A plant‑based diet can lower the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease because it emphasizes minimally processed foods and contains little to no cholesterol.
6. Cultural Fit: Ancestral Foods, Modern Nutrition
A common misconception is that veganism arrived from the West. In reality, the flavours of the Fertile Crescent and Maghreb have always leaned heavily on plants:
- Ful medames – slow‑stewed fava beans brightened with cumin and lemon.
- Mujaddara – lentils and rice simmered with caramelised onions.
- Bamia – okra braised in tomato sauce, traditionally meatless on fasting days.
- Tabbouleh – parsley, mint, tomatoes, and bulgur soaked in citrus‑rich olive oil.
Paired with whole‑grain breads, these dishes supply complete protein as well as iron, zinc, and calcium in bio‑available forms. The main nutrients to watch are vitamin B 12 and long‑chain omega‑3s; both are easily met with fortified plant milks, nutritional yeast, or algal‑oil capsules—products that now line supermarket shelves from Muscat to Marrakesh.
7. Economic Upside Without Borders
Replacing some animal products with pulses and grains grown locally could stimulate rural economies and trim import bills. Morocco already cans chickpeas and fava beans for European markets. Egypt’s lentil farmers could expand into school‑meal programmes, reducing costly soybean imports. Agri‑tech hubs in Dubai are funding research into drought‑tolerant millet, camelina‑based cooking oils, and hummus‑derived protein concentrates for sports nutrition. Skilled jobs in pulse‑processing, cold‑chain logistics, and plant‑based product development would follow.
Conclusion
A vegan diet is no silver bullet, but in the water‑stressed, heat‑exposed MENA region it ranks among the fastest, most cost‑effective levers for sustainability. Replacing or reducing meat‑centric meals with dishes powered by lentils, chickpeas, dates, figs, and olive oil can:
- Save water without building new dams or desalination plants.
- Reduce antibiotic pollution and slow the rise of drug‑resistant infections.
- Lower land‑use pressure both at home and in distant rainforests.
- Cut greenhouse‑gas emissions that exacerbate regional heat and energy demand.
Crucially, it realigns modern eating with culinary traditions that have nourished desert travellers and coastal traders for centuries.
References
- Mekonnen, M. , & Hoekstra, A. Y. (2012). A global assessment of the water footprint of farm animal products. Ecosystems, 15(3), 401‑415.
Quantifies average blue‑ and green‑water requirements of beef (~15 m³ kg‑¹) and poultry (~4.3 m³ kg‑¹), underpinning the discussion of livestock water demand. - Van Boeckel, T. , Brower, C., Gilbert, M., et al. (2015). Global trends in antimicrobial use in food animals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(18), 5649‑5654.
Documents escalating prophylactic antibiotic use in intensive poultry and cattle systems, including data from several MENA countries. - Holmer, M. (2010). Environmental issues of fish farming in offshore waters. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 60(12), 1818‑1826.
Reviews nutrient loading, antibiotic residues, and benthic dead‑zone formation beneath sea‑cage aquaculture sites—evidence cited in the aquaculture section. - Gerber, P. , Steinfeld, H., Henderson, B., et al. (2013). Tackling climate change through livestock: A global assessment of emissions and mitigation opportunities. Rome: FAO.
Calculates livestock’s 14–15 % share of anthropogenic greenhouse‑gas emissions and details methane’s high warming potential. - Schwingshackl, L., Hoffmann, G., Lampousi, A.‑M., et (2019). Food groups and risk of all‑cause mortality: a systematic review and meta‑analysis of prospective studies. International Journal of Epidemiology, 48(1), 31‑53.
Shows inverse associations between high legume/whole‑grain intake and cardiovascular mortality, supporting health claims for plant‑based diets. - Satija, A., Bhupathiraju, S. , Spiegelman, D., et al. (2016). Plant‑based dietary patterns and risk of type 2 diabetes in three prospective cohort studies. PLoS Medicine, 13(6), e1002039.
Provides evidence that diets emphasising plant foods while minimising animal products cut type 2 diabetes risk—relevant to regional public‑health projections. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2022). AR6 Working Group II Report: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.
