Leading climate scientists have made yet another dire warning to humanity: If we do not change our ways, life as we know it is headed towards catastrophic collapse. They warn that we must keep our global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, even a half degree more will equate to worsening droughts, fires and other natural disasters that pose a threat to millions of people worldwide. What is new is that the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has given us a time frame. We have 12 years to curb our global emissions or we can expect to face climate calamity on a scale never seen before.
Our population has ballooned from 2.5 billion in 1950 to 7.2 billion today, and this number is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050. Not only has our population exploded, but so has our demand for food, water, and fuel. If we have any hope of sustaining this growing population, we need to redress the glaring inefficiencies in our agriculture, transportation and energy sectors.
As individuals, we have all but ignored our responsibility to future generations, the Earth and our fellow creatures who depend on it. We expect the burden of resolving these issue to be placed upon the shoulders of Governments and corporations, disregarding our power as individuals to enact change. We cannot expect old ways to solve new problems; we need to take a conscious, grassroots approach to combat the issues before us. If we wish to see positive change in the world, we must first make positive changes within ourselves.
Our approach to life on Earth is the same approach we have to business, meaning we prioritize growth above all else. While this may make sense in theory, it is impossible and unsustainable to have infinite growth in an economy built upon finite resources. We must come to the understanding that we cannot continue with “business as usual”. We need to make drastic, unprecedented changes on an individual level to alleviate our collective concerns, and fast.
Let’s talk about the thing no one wants to discuss: our troubling relationship with food. As a society, we have all but lost our connection to the land and food that sustains us. The most obvious example of our communal cognitive dissonance is related to our consumption of animal products. Our obsession with the taste of animals clouds our comprehension of the inefficiencies and ethical outrage related to their production. The most efficient meat, chicken, requires an input of 9 calories of plant feed to reap a single calorie for chicken meat. Rather than going straight to the source and consuming plant protein, we have been duped into believing that animal protein is superior in nutrition. It is a little-known fact that all protein is produced by plants. Only plants have the ability to take nitrates from the environment and transform them into an amino acid, the building blocks of protein. Animal protein is simply recycled from the plants that creature consumed while living, but it is inseparable from the dietary cholesterol and trans fat embedded in that animal’s tissue. It is also important to raise the fact that most people who consume a Western diet receive too much protein. Additionally, it is impossible to be protein deficient on a plant-based diet if you are consuming adequate calories. There has never been a recorded case of protein deficiency in the Western world. Yet the top killers: heart disease, cancer, and stroke, are directly related to our dietary preferences for animal protein.
Still not convinced you can exist without meat? Perhaps the impending threat of climate change will help warm you up to the idea. Raising livestock for human consumption is the number one cause of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. This means our eating habits have a greater impact on the environment than all modes of transportation combined. It is hard enough feeding 7 billion humans, try feeding the 70 billion farmed animals alive today. With the caloric inefficiencies of animal protein noted above, it is hard to comprehend why we continue forward with this fatally flawed machine. It could be because we don’t have to see the true reality of this on a daily basis. Instead, these animals are sheltered from view in dark, cramped enclosures with their only glimpse of sunlight caught on their way to slaughter. If the 3.6 chickens that exist for every human were walking around on the street, we would take notice. The argument that animals will take over if we stop eating them is comically incorrect. They have already surpassed us in terms of sheer numbers and we devote our most precious resources and land to their continued conquest. One-third of the ice-free land is devoted to farmed animals and the grain used to feed them. The only reason this continues to happen is due to consumer demand for animal products.
We vote with our dollar, and choosing these products is endorsing cruelty against the planet, the animals and yourself. Those who give up meat do not do so because they hate the taste. They simply recognized that their actions did not align with our values and chose to change. Just because something is normal and legal, does not mean it is morally just. With this newly imparted knowledge regarding the impacts of our food choices, we can no longer claim ignorance to these issues. We must lead with logic, not habit. Switching to a vegan diet is the single most effective thing you can do to reduce your impact on the planet and it just so happens that your health will improve from the avoidance of animal products. Instead of asking yourself what you have to lose, ask yourself what you have to gain by leading a vegan life. There has never been a better time than right now.
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