Cut your greenhouse gas production in half with one simple change -A plant based diet!

Here’s an eye opener: while emissions from vehicles account for 13% of all greenhouse gas emissions, industrial farming is responsible for 18%, according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Yes, you read that correctly: your diet has a bigger impact on greenhouse gas production than the car you drive!

The fact is, cattle and other domestic livestock produce large amounts of methane when they digest their food. Methane is also produced by excrement stored in tanks or lagoons. Methane is the second most common greenhouse gas and much more potent than carbon. (EPA Overview of Methane Gases).

Simply by switching to a mostly plant-based diet, you can cut in half the impact you have on the atmosphere.

Professional Ironman triathlete Brendan Brazier has calculated that by eating a “plant based whole foods diet” for one day you would conserve the equivalent in emissions of 37 miles of driving. (Brazier, Brendan (2011) Thrive Foods, Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 87 -91.)   One day eating a plant based diet = 37 miles not driven!

Greenhouse gas emissions aren’t the only problem associated with consuming a meat-rich diet. An article by Worldwatch Institute details how meat production and consumption:

• Consumes huge amounts of fresh water: Scientists are starting to talk about Peak Water. The animals we raise for meat consume a lot of water — 2,464 gallons for one pound of California beef.
• Becomes a major pollutant: Excrement from animals is overwhelming the environment near and downstream from large farms. Excess nitrogen from waste is killing off marine life in rivers.
• Consumes huge amounts of energy: Petroleum-based fertilizers are used to grow massive amounts of feed grain, which is now the most common diet for cattle, not grassy pasture. Oil is also needed to ship meat to the store, to refrigerate it and then to cook it.
• Contributes to deforestation and the loss of grasslands, as more and more land is used to produce food for animals, which in turn …
• Contributes to a loss of biodiversity among animals and plants that once lived in those forests and grasslands, which in turn…
• Increases the rate of extinction

Our family has gradually made the switch to a plant-based diet over the past 15 years. In my next post, I’ll talk about how we did it and in upcoming posts I’ll show you how you can do it too.