(Phys.org)—A pair of researchers affiliated with both Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has conducted an intriguing exercise—simulating the impact on the American diet and changes in greenhouse gas emissions if animal food products were completely eliminated from production, consumption and sale in the US. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Robin White and Mary Beth Hall describe how they built their simulation and what was revealed by running it.