Plant-Based Eating Saves the Oceans

It is becoming more and more imperative that we take action to address many of the urgent problems in our world today. Of these many problems, saving the environment is of extreme importance to us today. Although these problems may seem overwhelming, simply eating a certain way can help solve many of these environmental problems. The focus of this blog post will be how plant-based eating saves our world’s oceans. Although this issue has been briefly touched upon in an earlier blog post linked here, it’s time to dive deeper into saving the Earth’s oceans.

Already, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations reports that 80 percent of the world’s fish stocks are considered to be either fully exploited or overexploited. [1] Additionally, an article in the world-renowned peer-reviewed journal Science projects the global collapse of all species currently fished by the year 2048. [2] This great loss of biodiversity results mainly from the consequences of consuming seafood by humans. 

For example, when fishing vessels go out on the sea to catch fish, they often injure animals such as dolphins, manatees, and whales, often with their propellers or other moving parts. Furthermore, bycatch—sea life not intended to be caught—also constitutes a large portion of the cause of ocean extinction. A paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Marine Policy found that about 100 million sharks are killed each year. [3] Just imagine how much we can do for our oceans by eating plant-based.

What’s even more concerning is that the ocean extinction caused by the consumption of seafood will also directly have consequences on terrestrial life as well. In fact, marine organisms, such as photosynthetic phytoplankton and algae, are responsible for more than half of our atmospheric oxygen, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. [4] If the biodiversity in the oceans plummets so will the oxygen levels throughout the world which will have disastrous effects. It’s also generally accepted that approximately 80 percent of the oxygen we breathe comes from the world’s oceans. [5]

Now that the situation at hand is clear, what can we do to help? Well, turns out one of the best actions to take is to go plant-based which clearly includes eliminating all seafood from one’s diet. Not only will eliminating seafood save the oceans, but removing all other animal products will too. Animal agriculture in general produces massive amounts of waste that pollutes streams, rivers and the oceans.

Furthermore, run-off such as pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics, and nutrients from producing crops to feed the massive number of farmed animals pollutes the water as well—and can even lead to ocean dead zones. Shockingly, over a third of the global catch of wild fish is ground into fishmeal and fish oil to feed farmed animals—even including farmed fish. [5]

So, as you can see, one of the best ways to save our world’s oceans from aquatic life extinction and destruction is to go plant-based. If you are wondering how you can make this wonderful transition possible, then check out my blog post which details a few methods of doing just this.

Also, to help you get started with your journey, here’s a totally whole food plant-based recipe for oil-free No-Fry Fried Rice from the Recipes page of the website. Enjoy!

Sources:

[1] https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/reviewconf/FishStocks_EN_A.pdf 

[2] https://cdn.ioos.noaa.gov/media/2017/12/worm-et-al.pdf 

[3] http://wormlab.biology.dal.ca/publication/view/worm-etal-2013-global-catches-exploitation-rates-and-rebuilding-options-for-sharks/

[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/science/ocean-oxygen-production.html 

[5] https://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/why-you-should-go-vegan-for-the-oceans-this-earth-day/ 

Schools and Universities Are Moving to Plant-Based Solutions

As many of us know, a whole-food plant-based diet is known to have countless benefits for personal health, longevity, athleticism, and the environment, among many others. These positive consequences of a whole food plant-based diet are being recognized the world over including in the education sector. Over the course of the past few years, an increasing number of schools and universities have been on their way to establishing plant-based lifestyles among their students and teachers. 

Our first such example takes place in The Big Apple itself—New York City. In 2019, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that beginning in the 2019-2020 school year, all New York City public schools will have 'Meatless Mondays.' [1] This initiative was already implemented under a pilot program at 15 Brooklyn schools in the Spring of 2018.

In the ‘Meatless Monday’ scheme, students will be provided with healthy, all-vegetarian breakfast and lunch menus every Monday. Mayor Bill de Blasio further commented that "Cutting back on meat a little will improve New Yorkers' health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions." Moreover, as part of the environmental movement that our generation carries the burden of implementing, "expanding Meatless Mondays to all public schools to keep our lunch and planet green for generations to come." [1] 

Since that initial announcement was made in the Spring of 2019, over a year has passed and the 2019-2020 school year has come to an end. During that time period, over 1,800 public schools in New York City served fully vegetarian breakfasts and lunches to their students. [2] 

Now that the movement has gained a foothold is such a large, mainstream school system that serves over 1.1 million students, imagine if this could expand throughout the entirety of the country. A recent study published in the peer-reviewed international journal Global Environmental Change, found that if everyone in the United States participated in a meatless day, they could cut greenhouse gases by up to 22 percent—that’s nearly a quarter of the country’s greenhouse gases! [3]

The ‘Meatless Monday’ movement has not only rooted itself in New York City; on the contrary, it has already spread to over 150 United States universities not to mention the countless more across the world. Some notable places where ‘Meatless Monday’ has made itself at home include Brown University, Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern University, and University of California, Berkeley. [4]

Some educational institutions have even gone a step further by eliminating some meat products all together. For example, since October 2016, the University of Cambridge’s catering service has replaced beef and lamb with plant-based products. This positive change has led to a remarkable decrease of 33 percent in carbon emissions per kilogram of food purchased and a 28 percent reduction in land use per kilogram of food purchased. [5] 

The head of the university’s catering service notes that “Sustainability is extremely important to our students and staff and we wanted to ensure that we were not only responding to their needs, but pushing what was considered possible in a catering environment.”

Not only are universities taking action, but so are some schools. The Swan School in Oxford, England is one such school that has entirely removed red and white meat in addition to fish from its lunch menu. In addition, to enforce this rule, they have also prevented pupils from bringing in packed lunches from home. [6]

According to Headteacher Kay Wood, the initiative allows the school to “serve better quality meals for the same money.” Furthermore, there are also “huge environmental and sustainability benefits” for such actions [6]

Learning about so many places of education that are well on their way to going plant-based and eliminating animal products has been very inspiring. I’m sure that in the coming years, there is only going to be more support for the movement.

As mentioned earlier, the benefits of eating plant-based to the environment are paramount. We can all do our part by continuing to eat plant-based or transitioning to a plant-based lifestyle. To learn how to manage the transition, please check out my earlier blog linked here, on the very same topic. Like always, feel free to share your story and any feedback on the contact us page so that it may be featured on the testimonials page.

Sources:

[1] https://www.plantbasednews.org/lifestyle/plant-based-eric-adams-citywide-school-meatless-mondays

[2] https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/climate-change/471698-what-happens-when-the-nations-largest-school

[3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378018306101?via%3Dihub

[4] https://www.meatlessmonday.com/meatless-monday-campus/

[5] https://www.plantbasednews.org/news/university-cambridge-ditching-red-meat-slashed-emissions

[6] https://www.plantbasednews.org/news/british-school-removes-meat-lunch-menu

How Meat Substitutes Have Changed the Way Many Americans Think About Meat

The coronavirus pandemic has led to many changes big and small the world over. As we have seen in a previous blog, some of these changes have to do with the food we eat on a day to day basis. In this case, the popularity of veggie burgers, and other meatless burgers or plant-based meat substitutes has skyrocketed amid the pandemic.

A recent Forbes magazine article published about this issue found that in the wake of COVID-19 as slaughterhouses closed to stop infections, people began really questioning and reconsidering their meat consumption. [1] Perhaps it might even be the wet markets in China which led to the start of the pandemic itself of maybe it was the inhumane conditions in which the slaughterhouse workers are forced to stay in. Perhaps some people feared meat shortages that made them look into meat substitutes. Nonetheless, one thing is certain—Americans are becoming more mindful about the meat that they eat.

According to a report by Statista, the forecasted market value of plant-based meat worldwide is expected to grow tremendously. In 2018, the market value was estimated to be about $10.24 billion. Less than a decade later, in 2026, this same market value is predicted to be about $30.92 billion. That’s an extraordinary three-fold growth in just about 8 years! [2]

One example of such a plant-based product is the Beyond Burger (though several others such as the Impossible Burger)—a good meat substitute transition food on the way to becoming fully whole food plant-based. A lifecycle analysis of this burger was conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Systems. This analysis compared the Beyond Burger with a standard quarter pounder. The results indicated that a Beyond Burger required 99% less water, 93% less land use, 90% fewer greenhouse gases, and 46% less energy. [3] Surely, eating plant-based seems to be a no-brainer as it does so much for our environment. 

In the following comparison, the Beyond Burger is used, but the general results are applicable to many plant-based transition foods including Tofurky. When comparing the plant-based burger to an animal-based burger, the plant-based one prevailed on several accounts. First off, Beyond Burgers use split peas as their main protein source. These split peas are essential to the superiority of the plant-based burger as they have an excellent balance of the nine essential amino acids. This website, provides amino acid completeness scores, and gives split peas a score of over a 100 but ground beef a score of just 74! [4]

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Thus, it’s clear that animal-based proteins fall short of even competing with plant-based ones. Plus, as mentioned in my earlier blog post, Great Sources of Plant Proteins, animal protein plays a role in cancer risk. Specifically, IGF-1, a cancer promoting agent, is released excessively when animal protein is consumed. [5] 

Further comparing the plant-based burger with an animal-based one, we find that the Beyond Burger (or another plant-based product) has more protein as well as more iron. Additionally, this burger has no cholesterol, plant-based foods don’t have any cholesterol, and less fat—both saturated and total. All this information can be seen in the comparison chart on the right which can be enlarged by clicking on. 

All in all, I hope you found this blog to be very informational and inspiring as it demonstrated the immense growth of plant-based meat substitutes. In addition, it was shown how the Beyond Burger—one such meat alternative—is superior to its animal-based counterpart, both in terms of its environmental impact as well as its nutritional value. I hope you find more and more availability of plant-based foods as you are either making the switch to plant-based or are already plant-based!

Sources:

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrasternlicht/2020/05/04/alternative-meat-sales-soar-amid-pandemic/#629c3a2cedfd

[2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/877369/global-meat-substitutes-market-value/

[3] http://css.umich.edu/publication/beyond-meats-beyond-burger-life-cycle-assessment-detailed-comparison-between-plant-based

[4] https://nutritiondata.self.com/

[5] https://plantpoweredyouth.org/blogs/2018/12/31/great-sources-of-plant-proteins