The foods we choose make a difference.
Michael Greger
I think everyone knows and is taught from a young age what foods to eat to maintain a healthy lifestyle. We know our consumption makes a difference to our bodies and how we feel physically and mentally, but since eating is an everyday thing, do we really pause and reflect how our daily food choices are impacting our surroundings, outside the bubble of our individual lives, the planet we call home?
Environmental problems may seem overwhelming at times and it can feel as though what you do as an individual can never solve the colossal issues at hand. But be assured, your individual everyday choices can make a difference! By choosing to include more plants and less meat in your diet, you can curb the following issues:
Dietary greenhouse gas emissions are approximately double for meat eaters than vegans. By simply halving your meat consumption you have 40% reduced nitrogen emissions, 40% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and 23% land use.
A single day on a vegan diet saves 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 square foot of forested land, 20 pounds of greenhouse gases and one animal's life.
153 farm animals are killed a day for human consumption, that’s 56 billion a year not even including marine life.
Giving up meat just one day a week, like Meatless Monday, means decreasing your meat consumption by nearly 15 percent, effectively decreasing the problems associated with meat production by the same amount.
So this is a reminder that you have the power to make a difference, even with something as simple as your daily eating habits which compound into something much bigger either curbing or contributing to the issues at hand.