PLANT BASED DIET

Plant based diets are not only good for human health, they are good for the environment. Here are some reasons why eating a plant based diet is paramount for human and planetary health alike:

Animal agriculture is unsustainable. “Animal agriculture is one of the worst industries for impacts on the environment. Animal products have been linked to many health issues like multiple cancers, strokes, dementia, cardio-vascular disease and obesity, which are many of the health crises the Global North is struggling with currently.” - United Nations Environmental Programme written statement.
Raising animals for food requires more land and water many times over than growing food crops.
Manure is responsible for a staggering amount of the greenhouse gas emissions. Ammonia from manure is highly concentrated and is responsible for the death of fish, algae blooms, and smog.
Manure is also responsible for the air pollutants: carbon dioxide and methane. Methane produced from factory farming warms the earth 20 x faster than carbon dioxide.
It takes 100 X more water to produce one pound of animal protein compared to producing one pound of grain protein.
Waste from factory farms leaches into the soil and waterways and groundwater leading to the destruction of marine ecosystems.
Animal agriculture is the largest water pollutant. The runoff of manure and fertilizers into the water ways becomes a highly toxic pollutant and these areas in marine life become known as a “dead zone” where virtually all marine life is killed off.
Massive amounts of toxic fertilizers are used to produce the feed for factory farmed animals.
Animal agriculture is a huge contributor to deforestation and grazed lands increases erosion and destroys native vegetation.
Roughly 80% of agriculture land is used for grazing and producing feed for the animal industry.
Indescribable suffering of billions and billions of animals both directly and indirectly killed in the animal agricultural industry. To learn more about animal agriculture click here.

While on the topic of eating responsibly here are some other great tips about food:

Buy organic
Shop local foods & farmers markets
Grow your own food
Reduce/eliminate food waste
Compost - any plant based diet waste is compostable! Meat and dairy products can only be composted at commercial levels. To read more about compost click here.

ARTICLES

Al Gore’s New “Resign Trump” Video Promotes Veganism | VegNews | August 20th, 2017

Avoiding meat and dairy is the is the ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on earth |Damian Carrington | The Guardian | May 2018

Change your diet to combat climate change in 2019 | Lisa Drayer | CNN | January 2nd, 2019

Climate change food calculator: What's your diet's carbon footprint? | Nassos Stylianou, Clara Guibourg and Helen Briggs | BBC | December 13th, 2018

Go Vegan: A Practical Vegan Guide for Beginners | Sentient Media | November 2019

Lab-grown food will soon destroy farming – and save the planet | George Monbiot | The Guardian | January 8th, 2020

How Many Animals Are Killed for Food Every Day? | Sentient Media | November 2019

How Plant Based Diets Can Benefit the Earth | Sophie Hirsh | Green Matters | May 2019

Modernizing Meat Production Will Help Us Avoid Pandemics | Liz Specht | Wired | March 13th, 2020

Multiple health and environmental impacts of foods | Michael A Clark, Marco Springmann, Jason Hill & David Tilman | PNAS | October 28th, 2019

Plant-based diet can fight climate change - UN | Roger Harrabin | BBC | August 8th, 2019