Plant-based foods are nutritious and can be tasty if you take time to plan your meals. I admit, my partner is most conscious of planning meals away from animal products. But watching “Nature” and “Planet Earth” television programs, I understand simple changes to my diet I could help the planet. Actually it may be more about my helping future populations of people hoping to continue their life on this planet.
You may not agree that climate change affects our planet, but many plants and animals are extinct because the environment does not allow them to thrive. You could think about that also in terms of the human population. More and more people are leaving their home because it is no longer survivable where they hoped to live. We are fortunate in the USA to not witness this major human migration yet.
Recently I learned 75% of all the agricultural land on earth is to grow livestock feed for cows, pigs and chickens. As I mentioned above, there are people in climate-changed environments leaving their homes. Drought in their area and thus no ability to grow the food they need to eat. Yet across the planet, we are using many acres of agricultural lands, drawing tons of water to grow livestock feed, allowing fertilizers to run-off into local streams, and feeding livestock in huge feedlots. If we ate fewer cows, sheep, bison and goats there would also be less methane in the air. Cows belch one-third of the global methane emissions. As a result, innovative systems are giving cows methane-reducing feed supplements, but all pales with what is needed to reduce climate-warming gases.
I admit it, I love cheese! Yes I know it comes from goats and cows. Again recently, I learned this is actually worse than eating some meats! Cheese-making unfortunately produces two times more gases warming the planet than processing the same amount of poultry. Who knew? And now that I know I need to add it to everything else I am learning. What would be a productive transition for me to a more plant-based diet? There are vegan cheese options available for me to try in the future. I could reduce my meat consumption further during the week. There is no plant-based meat alternative I like, at this time. The large meat companies do try to encourage us to eat their meat alternative. The companies are getting push-back from environmentally-conscious buyers who do not want to buy and consume meat.
My goal is not to be vegetarian or vegan. It is however to eat real food and skip food alternatives made in a chemistry lab. Buying local beans, nuts, seasonal fruits and vegetables would be a big step in the right direction for me for a more plant-based diet. It may seem like a huge ask; however, being mindful of my food choices is my actual goal. With every reduction of my carbon footprint I hope people have a better climate in the future; that’s important to me.
Next, to think about transportation.