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Here are 5 science-backed reasons proving that eating plant-based has major benefits for our planet.
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Whether you’re vegan, have dabbled with a plant-based lifestyle or are simply looking to learn more, now is the time to join others and celebrate all things plant-based. It’s Veganuary and millions around the world are sharing recipes, tips and the reasons why our planet benefits from us swapping meat for beans for dinner tonight.
What’s Veganuary?
It’s a movement where the entire month of January is dedicated to highlighting how a vegan lifestyle is better not only for animals and our health, but the planet as well. Whether you choose to simply participate a few days or the entire month, you’ll join over 1,000,000 from 192 countries along with 600 businesses who have pledge to try a vegan diet.
How Can You Participate?
If you’re looking to join this growing movement, then you can take the pledge and sign your name on their website. You can even get your co-workers to join as your vegan teammates by encouraging your office to join the pledge or organize a fundraiser like a bake-off or start a Just Giving page.
If you’re new to a vegan lifestyle you can try a vegan recipe. The website has 500+ of recipes organized by regions so you can take in the flavors of the world through meat and dairy-free recipes. There are even kid-friendly recipes or snack and dessert ideas that you can try as well.
So… How Is A Vegan Diet Good For The Planet?
Water Conservation
Much like the fashion industry, the agriculture industry is looking for ways to conserve water and minimize pollution. Dairy and meat production use 25% of our ground water supply. By some estimates it takes 4,200 gallons of water or a month’s worth of showers to produce 1 gallon of milk. And, if each person didn’t consume dairy for a year, they would save 50,033 gallons of water.
Minimize Water Pollution
Throughout the world more areas are rising known as “dead zones”. A combination of hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals from water runoff from livestock feed have polluted the waterways in these areas to the point that marine and plant life die and the they become biological deserts. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 335 tones of manure is produced yearly from livestock. Coupled with water runoff from livestock feed, this creates a process called eutrophication where those chemicals lead to to an excessive growth of algae blooms that create an abundance of CO2 that in turn kill of surrounding life.
One infamous dead zone, a 6,000- 7,000 square miles stretch along the Gulf of Mexico.
Minimize Soil Depletion
At its best agriculture is a sustainable system where crops are rotated to replace nutrients in the soil. At its worst, intensive farming depletes the nutrient rich soil (topsoil) needed for growing food. This is a growing problem all around the world, because it takes centuries for topsoil to generate. To date, it is estimated that we’ve used 40% of the world’s topsoil for animal agriculture alone.
Re-Forestation
In Brazil, it’s estimated that 75% of the Amazon rainforest has been cleared for livestock. This has not only put a strain on our planet due to biodiversity loss, but also an increase in nitrogen pollution, soil erosion and water pollution as a result.
Minimize Greenhouse Gas Emissions
According to a report by The Humane Society of the United States, animal agriculture accounts for “37% of emissions of methane,which has more than 20 times the global warming potential (GWP) of CO2 and 65% of emissions of nitrous oxide, which has nearly 300 times the GWP of CO2.”