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OPEN Author Correction: Environmentally Optimal, Nutritionally Sound, Protein and Energy Conserving

Published: xx xx xxxx Plant Based Alternatives to U.S. Meat Gidon Eshel 1, Paul Stainier2, Alon Shepon3 & Akshay Swaminathan2

Correction to: Scientifc Reports https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-46590-1, published online 08 August 2019

Tis Article contained errors.

Immediately prior to publication the Authors discovered an error in the code used in the study in the naming of a plant food item. Te authors replaced USDA plant item names, which are very long and contain too much information for graphical presentation, with shorter names. Te authors used a Matlab cell array, in which items are indexed with values incremented by one for each added item. In the original code, one index in this item list was erroneously repeated, which meant that reported plant names were for items with an index of by one (for example, green peppers were listed instead of green peas which preceded them in the alphabetized list, pears replaced peanuts, and so on). Tis afects presentations of the data in Figure 3, 4, S1, and S2 as well the names of food items presented in the text.

In addressing this issue, the authors revisited all calculations. Because the results are derived using a Monte Carlo code whose randomization this time around is distinct from the original one, this resulted in minor diferences in all other fgures and in the numerical values reported in Table 1. Tese diferences arose exclusively from being derived from two distinct randomizations.

Te item naming errors in the paper are corrected and apart from the randomization-related diferences have no efect on the environmental and nutritional improvements or on the paper’s conclusions.

In the Abstract:

“We develop a new methodology for identifying nutritional constraints whose satisfaction by plant eaters is chal- lenging, disproportionately shaping the optimal diets, singling out energy, mass, monounsaturated fatty acids, vitamins B3,12 and D, choline, zinc, and selenium. By replacing meat with the devised plant alternatives—domi- nated by soy, green pepper, squash, buckwheat, and asparagus—Americans can collectively eliminate pastureland use while saving 35–50% of their diet related needs for cropland, Nr, and GHG emission, but increase their diet related irrigation needs by 15%.”

now reads:

“We develop a new methodology for identifying nutritional constraints whose satisfaction by plant eaters is chal- lenging, disproportionately shaping the optimal diets, singling out energy, mass, monounsaturated fatty acids, vitamins B3,6,12 and D, choline, zinc, and selenium. By replacing meat with the devised plant alternatives—domi- nated by tofu, soybeans, peanuts, and lentils—Americans can collectively eliminate pastureland use while saving

1Physics Department, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, 12504-5000, USA. 2Harvard College, Cambridge, MA, USA. 3Department of Nutrition, T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, USA. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to G.E. (email: [email protected])

Scientific Reports | (2019)9:13888 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-50289-8 1 www.nature.com/scientificreports/ www.nature.com/scientificreports

35-50% of their diet related needs for cropland, Nr, and GHG emission, but increase their diet related irrigation needs by 15%.”

In the Results, in subsection ‘Diet Composition, Nutrient Delivery, and share of Resource Use’:

“In daily per capita mass, buckwheat, soy, pears, and kidney beans dominate the all meat replacement, while green pepper, soy, asparagus, and squash dominate the beef only replacement (Fig. S1a,b, which present the eight most dominant plant items in the mean replacement diets calculated over the 500 Monte Carlo realizations).”

now reads:

“In daily per capita mass, tofu, soybeans, peanuts, and lentils dominate the all meat replacement, while green peas, lentils, asparagus, and spinach dominate the beef only replacement (Fig. S1a,b, which present the eight most dominant plant items in the mean replacement diets calculated over the 500 Monte Carlo realizations).“

In this same subsection:

“Similarly, green peppers, which dominate the mass of the beef replacement, claim substantial amounts of the 3 resources save land (Fig. S1d1,4). But exceptions to these expectations abound in individual burdens (e.g., the contribution of buckwheat to water needs of the all meat replacement).”

now reads:

“Similarly, green peas, which dominate the mass of the beef replacement, claim substantial amounts of the 3 resources save land (Figs. S1d1,4). But exceptions to these expectations abound in individual burdens (e.g., the contribution of tofu to water needs of the all meat replacement).”

Te section:

“In panels b-i, high resource users per g (e.g., water use by pears or Nr use by asparagus) form tall rectangles, while low resource users per g (e.g., all resource use by soy) form fat, wide rectangles. While sharing some items (e.g., soy or green peppers), the two mean replacement diets also difer.”

now reads:

“In panels b-i, high resource users per g (e.g., water use by peanuts in the all meat replacement or Nr use by asparagus in the beef replacement) form tall rectangles, while low resource users per g (e.g., all resource use by soy) form fat, wide rectangles. While sharing some items (e.g., lentils or green peas), the two mean replacement diets also difer.”

Additionally, as a result of re-randomisation, the value obtained for vitamin B6 now reaches the signifcance threshold, and therefore the section:

“For both beef and all meat replacements, constraints governing total mass and energy (associated with upper bounds), and monounsaturated fatty acid, vitamins D, B3,12, zinc, choline and selenium (associated with a lower bounds) prove critical.”

reads:

“For both beef and all meat replacements, constraints governing total mass and energy (associated with upper bounds), and monounsaturated fatty acid, vitamins D, B3,6,12, zinc, choline and selenium (associated with a lower bounds) prove critical.”

Te results presented in Table 1 were also modifed as a result of the new randomization. Table 1 in the Article was updated and the original table appears below as Table 1:

beef replacement all meat replacement mass ranking mean mean environmental mean mean mean mean of items mass cost suitability mass environmental cost suitability 1 to 10 22 0.4 16 26 0.4 22 11 to 20 2.3 0.3 13 3.7 0.4 14 20 to 64 0.1 0.6 12 0.2 0.6 11

Table 1. .

Scientific Reports | (2019)9:13888 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-50289-8 2 www.nature.com/scientificreports/ www.nature.com/scientificreports

Te paragraph:

“Returning briefy to Fig. 3, it also visualizes the disconnect between individual plant items’ chosen masses, frac- tional protein contributions, and resource use. For example, with ≈68 g person−1 d−1, buckwheat and tofu jointly dominate the mean all meat replacement diet (frst suitability group), delivering a full third of the total protein, yet account for about 12% of Nr and water needs, and <22% of the cropland needs. Similarly, soy contributes the most protein to the beef replacing diet (about 3 g d-1 or 24%), but accounts for only 6% of this diet’s overall N fertilizer needs. Still in the beef replacement diet, by contrast, raspberries deliver 8% of the mass but under 2% of the total protein while requiring 12–14% of the water and emissions (third suitability group).”

now reads:

“Returning briefy to Fig. 3, it also visualizes the disconnect between individual plant items’ chosen masses, frac- tional protein contributions, and resource use. For example, with ≈69 g person-1 d-1, soy and tofu jointly dominate the mean all meat replacement diet (frst suitability group), delivering a full third of the total protein, yet account for about 12% of Nr and water needs, and <22% of the cropland needs. Similarly, lentils contribute the most pro- tein to the beef replacing diet (about 3 g d-1 or 24%), but accounts for only 6% of this diet’s overall N fertilizer needs. Still in the beef replacement diet, by contrast, pumpkin delivers 6% of the mass but under 2% of the total protein while requiring ≈ 10% of the water and emissions (third suitability group).”

Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 are replaced in the Article with the correct versions; the original versions are reproduced below as Figure 1 through 4.

lut+zea

manganese folate

carot

vit K beef beef replacement vit A all all meat meat replacement copper

soluble fiber daily per capita environmental costs 2 b m c g Nr dkg CO e L phytosterols 2eq 200 49% 40 56% 48% total fiber 4 3 31% magnesium 44% 39% 150 38% 30 2.5 3 B12 2 100 iron 20 18% 2 1.5 16% 13% thiamin 1 50 1 15% 10 vit C 12% 10% 0.5 9% 8% 6% flavonoid 0 0 0 0

0255075 100 125 150 175 200 225 250 275 300325 350375 400425 450 percent of delivery by the truncated MAD

Figure 1. Original version of Figure 1, which is now replaced in the Article.

Scientific Reports | (2019)9:13888 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-50289-8 3 www.nature.com/scientificreports/ www.nature.com/scientificreports

resource savings by replacements beef, beef, all meat, all meat, total dietary total dietary a 106 ha b 109 kg c 109 kg d 109 m3 0 4 300 e 40 30 3 30 200 -5 20 20 2 10 100 10 1 -10 water resource savings 0 added resource use land nitrogen emissions % resource use change 0 0 all meat beef 0 all meat beef -10 land nitrogen emissions water

Figure 2. Original version of Figure 2, which is now replaced in the Article.

a protein land N fertilier GHG water collards 29 2% b 15 2% c 19 1% d 196 15% e 80 raspbe- replacing meat -rries replacing beef strawb- -erries 60 broccoli

grapef- -ruit 40 safflower oil replacing all meat aspara- 20 -gus lentils

kidney 0 beans 31 2% f 23 1% g 16 1% h 140 9% i smmr 80 squash chickp- -eas 60 tofu

grn cumulative percent of resource use peppers 40 pears

buckwh- replacing beef only -eat 20 soybeans

0 10 20 30 0 % of total protein 01020 01020 01020 01020 plant item mass, g (person d)-1

Figure 3. Original version of Figure 3, which is now replaced in the Article.

Scientific Reports | (2019)9:13888 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-50289-8 4 www.nature.com/scientificreports/ www.nature.com/scientificreports

Figure 4. Original version of Figure 4, which is now replaced in the Article.

Figure 3 legend was also corrected. The numerical value of cropland usage is corrected as a result of re-randomization:

“For example, contributing ≈29 g cap.−1 d−1, summer squash is prominent (4th by mass) in the beef replacement diet. Yet because it is responsible for under 1% of total land use, it is not a top-5 land user, and is thus absent from panel f. Standard deviations calculated in both dimensions over the 500 Monte Carlo diets are given by the white L shape near the lower-lef corners of sufciently large rectangles. Total resource demands of the plant based replacement diets as percentage of the corresponding demands of the replaced meat(s) are at the top of each panel, e.g., the mean all meat replacement plant diet uses 29 ± 2% of the cropland beef, poultry and pork currently jointly use (panel b).”

now reads:

“For example, contributing ≈29 g cap.−1 d−1, spinach is prominent (4th by mass) in the beef replacement diet. Yet because it is not a top land user, it is thus absent from panel f. Standard deviations calculated in both dimensions over the 500 Monte Carlo diets are given by the white L shape near the lower-lef corners of sufciently large rec- tangles. Total resource demands of the plant based replacement diets as percentage of the corresponding demands of the replaced meat(s) are at the top of each panel, e.g., the mean all meat replacement plant diet uses 30 ± 2% of the cropland beef, poultry and pork currently jointly use (panel b).”

Scientific Reports | (2019)9:13888 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-50289-8 5 www.nature.com/scientificreports/ www.nature.com/scientificreports

Finally, item names in Supplementary Figures 1 and 2 were also afected. Te Supplementary Information was replaced with a version containing correct fgures, but the original Figures S1 and S2 are reproduced below as Figure 5 and Figure 6.

a all meat replacement b beef replacement 1 buckwheat 1 grn peppers 2 tofu 2 soybeans 3 pears 3 asparagus 4 soybeans 4 smmr squash 5 kidney beans 5 strawberries 6 grn peppers 6 chickpeas 7 lentils 7 raspberries 8 smmr squash 8 broccoli 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 grams of plant item grams of plant item 2 g CO m cropland g Nr 2eq liter irrigation 4 5 1 3 7 3 3 2 5 8 2 6 1 4 4 4 2 6 5 5 3 1 7 7 all meat replacement 6 c 7 c 6 c 1 c 8 1 2 2 8 3 8 4 2 8 2 1 1 4 1 2

4 2 4 8 bee f d d d d 8 1 1 2 8 3 4 4 replacement 0 0.1 0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0204060 0510 15

Figure 5. Original version of Supplementary Figure 1.

Figure 6. Original version of Supplementary Figure 2.

Scientific Reports | (2019)9:13888 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-50289-8 6 www.nature.com/scientificreports/ www.nature.com/scientificreports

To aid the readers wishing to reproduce the results, the Article now includes a new Code Availability section that reads:

“Code Availability

The original code used to generate the results of this study can be accessed at https://github.com/geshel/ SciRepAug2019.git or at https://zenodo.org/badge/latestdoi/205003590.”

Tese errors do not afect the main conclusions of the Article.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Cre- ative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Te images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not per- mitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

© Te Author(s) 2019

Scientific Reports | (2019)9:13888 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-50289-8 7