A Plant-Based Lifestyle to Combat Climate Change

Climate change is considered to be one of humanity’s greatest challenges currently and the world’s gravest environmental threat. According to the United Nations (U.N.) report Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, climate change is having an impact on every continent, affecting agriculture, human health, ecosystems, water supplies, and even people’s livelihoods. [1] 

People are already trying to help combat climate change by using energy-saving lightbulbs and using more fuel-efficient cars; however, these actions are simply not enough. One of the best options to help save the environment is to eliminate meat, eggs, and dairy from your diet, thus going plant-based.

As briefly touched upon in the blog 10 Ways Eating Plant-Based Saves the World, animal agriculture greatly contributes to climate change in several ways. The entire process of animal agriculture itself is very energy inefficient as it includes growing massive amounts of grains which are fed to animals. As one might recall from a previous blog, it takes 100 calories of grain to produce 3 calories of beef. [2]

Moreover, forests around the world are cut down to make space for pasture as well as to grow the crops that feed the animals. These forests that are being cut down absorb large quantities of carbon dioxide—a potent greenhouse gas. Additionally, the animals themselves, as well as their manure, produce even more greenhouse gases such as methane into the atmosphere. Methane is also considered to be roughly 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide which means that it has more significant negative effects on the atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide is also released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas. On average, it takes about 11 times as much fossil fuel to produce a calorie of animal protein as it does to produce a calorie of grain protein. [3] Thus, considerably more carbon dioxide is released into the air from eating animals. Taking this fact into account, eating plant-based is one of the best actions to take in order to help combat climate change and global warming.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reported that animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Transportation exhaust, on the other hand, is responsible for only 13 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. [4] Also, switching to a plant-based diet will help you reduce your carbon footprint more than switching from a conventional car to a hybrid one. [3]

In addition to carbon dioxide and methane, there is another deadly greenhouse gas which is nitrous oxide. When compared to carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide is about 300 times more potent as a greenhouse gas. A United Nations report also finds that the meat, egg, and dairy industries account for an astonishing 65 percent of worldwide nitrous-oxide emissions. [5] Just imagine how much we can do for our planet just by going plant-based.

Eat Plant-Based to Save the Earth

So, on a concluding note, here’s a useful resource to help you transition to a whole food plant-based lifestyle to help make one of the largest positive impacts to counter climate change. Best wishes!

Sources:

[1] https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/ 

[2] https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/the-surprising-way-your-diet-can-fix-the-soy-and-deforestation-problem/ 

[3] https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/global-warming/#:~:text=Many%20other%20scientists%20around%20the,gases%20than%20meat%2Deaters%20do. 

[4] http://www.fao.org/3/a0701e/a0701e00.htm 

[5] https://news.un.org/en/story/2006/11/201222-rearing-cattle-produces-more-greenhouse-gases-driving-cars-un-report-warns

The Dairy Situation in American Schools

It’s now been over a month or so since schools around the country have started back up for the new academic year. This year has many new challenges due to COVID-19 as some students are adjusting to virtual learning or even in-person for others. In addition to COVID-19 related issues, there is an additional issue that has been persisting for several years — government-suggested dairy servings at school lunches. [1,2]

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As described by the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine, milk and other dairy products contribute to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease. [3] Therefore, they are not suitable for a health-promoting diet.

The dairy problem is widespread at a majority of schools around the country from grades Pre-K through 12. The projected number of preschool through grade 12 public school students in the United States as of Fall 2020 is approximated to be 50.7 million according to the National Center for Education Statistics. [4] These roughly fifty million students include:

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• 23.4 million White students

• 14.0 million Hispanic students

• 7.6 million Black students

• 2.8 million Asian students

• 2.3 million students of Two or more races

• 0.5 million American Indian/Alaska Native students

• 0.2 million Pacific Islander students

So many students, a great number of them lactose-intolerant, are pushing a glass of milk down their throats every day, in the name of calcium as encouraged by the government. Many of the minority groups included in the list above have rates of lactose intolerance that are greater than 50% — a majority of that minority’s population is lactose intolerant! [5,6] Thus, much information needs to be made accessible to these students and their families so they can understand that drinking milk is not at all necessary or even recommended by the latest scientific nutrition information.

Several studies of milk consumption during youth have found that milk consumption was associated with a borderline increase in fracture risk. [7,8] Researchers also investigated the relationship between milk intake and mortality. In addition to significantly more bone and hip fractures, they found higher rates of premature death, greater risk of heart disease, and significantly more cancer for women. For men, higher milk consumption also led to a higher risk of death, although fracture rates did not increase. [9]

So what are good sources of calcium? Dark green leafy vegetables, like kale, broccoli, and bok choy, are rich in calcium. Additionally, they contain fiber, folate, iron, and antioxidants — all of which are lacking in dairy. For a table of foods rich in calcium, visit this link from the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine. 

I hope you found this blog informative as always. If you’re feeling motivated to make the switch to a whole food plant-based diet, feel free to visit the websites, recipes, videos, documentaries and more that are linked on this site. As a reminder, these two previous blog posts are also valuable resources to make the transition to a plant-based diet: 4 Smart Strategies to go Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB) and 5 Steps to Make Your New Year’s Nutrition Resolution Successful.

Sources:

[1] https://health.gov/our-work/food-nutrition  

[2] https://mercyforanimals.org/public-schools-milk-department-agriculture 

[3] https://www.pcrm.org/good-nutrition/nutrition-information/health-concerns-about-dairy

[4] https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_203.60.asp 

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKzUD8eFb0E

[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDP5Uan7UQU

[7] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/is-milk-good-for-our-bones/ 

[8] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24247817/ 

[9] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25352269/

To Save the World's Rainforest, Eat Plant-Based

Trees—they’re the basis of life around the world. They provide shade to shield us from the harsh rays of the sun, are home to millions of various insects, critters, and animals, and are just simply beautiful. These miraculous creations of nature are also essential to the survival of our planet. 

However, these trees are being cut down at dangerously large rates in the process known as deforestation. Deforestation—especially in the rainforests—leads to a major loss in the ecosystem’s biodiversity. In fact, rainforest destruction results in the extinction of up to 137 plant, animal, and insect species every day. [1] The driving cause of deforestation and habitat loss is animal agriculture. In the present moment, over 50 percent of the world’s arable land is dedicated to livestock grazing or growing feed. [2]

As the population of the world grows, the area of land used for agriculture will only increase. Since there is a limited amount of arable land, more will have to be cleared out by cutting down trees. According to a World Bank Working Paper, animal agriculture is responsible for up to 91% of Amazon rainforest destruction. [3] Therefore, eating plant-based would eliminate this 91% and leave only 9% of the current rainforest destruction—a still unwanted, but more manageable figure. 

Although all this alarming information may make it seem hopeless, there’s some good news. A study conducted by researchers from the Institute of Social Ecology in Vienna and published in the acclaimed international peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications claims that all deforestation related to food could be taken down to zero by 2050 if people go plant-based, removing all meat and dairy products from their diets. [4]

Furthermore, the researchers concluded that “it is possible to produce sufficient food for the world in 2050 and at the same time maintain the current forests of the world.” Such is the power of a plant-based eating pattern. In their study, the researchers took measurements for various food production scenarios. Unsurprisingly, they found that the higher the  meat consumption, the higher the deforestation rates. Thus, it’s completely a no-brainer to begin eliminating the consumption of animal products and replace those calories with health-promoting plant-based products.

Quite surprisingly, over three-quarters or 75% of the world’s soy is fed to livestock. This means that most of the land that could be used to grow plants for human consumption is instead fed to animals creating inefficiencies in the system. For example, it takes 100 calories of grain to produce 3 calories of beef. [5] In this example, simply eating plant-based would allow over 30 times more people to eat from a patch of land initially used to grow grain that would be fed to animals.  

In the past few years, you may have even heard of some forest fires in the Amazon Rainforest. These fires were directly related to the beef industry. According to the scientific director of the Brazilian IPAM (Institute of Environmental Research in Amazonia), Ane Alencar, the fires are “set by people seeking to create cattle ranches.” [6] The results of these deadly fires are devastating as can be seen from the many photos. 

All in all, there’s no doubt that eating plant-based is better for the rainforests of this world. Hopefully this is a great reason to stay plant-based or make the transition if you are not yet fully plant-based. Despite the dire situation at hand, there is still so much we can do to help solve the problem of deforestation. I wish you all the very best!

Sources:

[1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-talks-daily-destruction/ 

[2] https://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/plant-based-can-save-our-forests/ 

[3] http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/758171468768828889/pdf/277150PAPER0wbwp0no1022.pdf 

[4] https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms11382 

[5] https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/the-surprising-way-your-diet-can-fix-the-soy-and-deforestation-problem/

[6] https://www.livekindly.co/eddie-huang-goes-vegan-save-amazon-rainforest/