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Trees Planted
by Cynthia B. Lauer
It’s September. This month, Living Green Barrie’s 12 Actions for Climate focuses on increasing your consumption of plant-based products. This means reducing your consumption of animal protein.
The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) defines sustainable diets as “those diets with low environmental impacts which contribute to food and nutrition security and to healthy life for present and future generations. Sustainable diets are protective and respectful of biodiversity and ecosystems, culturally acceptable, accessible, economically fair and affordable; nutritionally adequate, safe and healthy; while optimizing natural and human resources.”
Sustainable diets holistically combine three core aspects: environmental, health, and economic.
Let’s look at the environmental factors.
Producing livestock for human consumption is the largest contributor of greenhouse gases, water pollution and soil degradation on the planet. More than 90% of all Amazon rainforests cleared since 1970 are used as grazing lands to hold livestock for human consumption. By reducing the amount of animal protein consumed, we can drastically slow the progression of climate change.
The production of livestock and animal by-products for human consumption has grown substantially over the last two decades. Livestock or livestock feed occupies 1/3 of the earth’s ice-free land. That industry is the single greatest cause of greenhouse gas emissions.
This is why changing our diets is necessary for the future of our planet. Reducing your consumption of animal protein by half can cut your diet’s carbon footprint by more than 40%.
Here‘s why (my source is HealthePlanet.com):
- The livestock industry accounts for 77% of all agricultural land.
- It is responsible for 20%-33% of all freshwater consumption in the world today.
- The livestock industry is responsible for 18% of all greenhouse gases worldwide.
- Emissions by the livestock industry are projected to increase 80% by 2050.
- Reducing meat consumption by 30% would cut food-related emissions by 29%. Adopting vegetarian diets would cut them by 63%, and vegan diets by 70%.
A 2020 research report by Niki A. Rust, et al. published by the National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7184671/) provides more information on the environmental cost of the livestock industry.
Globally, animal products provide only 18% of our calories but use 83% of our farmland and are responsible for 56% of greenhouse gas emissions from the food sector. It is also a leading cause of habitat destruction for raising livestock and growing livestock feed. Cattle farming is currently directly responsible for 71% of Latin American deforestation, resulting in an annual forest loss of 2.71 million hectares.
Other ecosystem services are degraded by meat production. Livestock production can contaminate freshwater supplies mainly through nutrient use in feed production and through manure management in feedlots, barnyards, and other facilities. Freshwater pollution is a major contributor to dead zones in estuaries and coastal regions, of which there are now more than 400 globally. Unsustainable livestock production disproportionately contributes to the environmental cost of agriculture through its intense use of water, land and soil.
Rust and her colleagues state that in order to eat without incurring environmental damage, we should consume no more than 98 g of red meat, 203 g of poultry and 196 g of fish per week. However, high-income countries are currently consuming double this, surpassing nutritional requirements, with many lower/middle income countries predicted to follow this trend over the coming decades. For instance, red meat intake in North America, Latin America and Europe is 300–600% higher than daily recommended levels. This contrasts with the intake of fruits, vegetables and plant-sourced protein at about half of the recommended levels.
Moving away from the harms from the overconsumption of meat and toward the advantages of the alternative, there are significant benefits in adopting a plant-based diet. My source is the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
My source is the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
1. A plant-based diet supports your immune system. Plants have essential nutrients that you cannot get from other foods. The vitamins and minerals, phytochemicals and antioxidants in plants help keep your cells healthy and your body in balance so that your immune system can function at its best.
2. Plant foods reduce inflammation. The same tiny phytochemicals and antioxidants that boost your immune system also go around your body neutralizing toxins from pollution, processed foods, bacteria, viruses and more. A plant-based diet may protect you because it removes some of the triggers to cancer, and reduces your risk for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, and inflammatory diseases like arthritis.
3. A plant-based diet can help you maintain a healthy weight. Staying at a healthy weight is one of the most important things you can do to reduce your risk for cancer. If you are overweight or obese, your risk is higher for more than ten types of cancer. Filling up on plant-based options instead of more processed food can mean eating fewer calories.
4. Plants are high in fiber. Fiber is present in all unprocessed plant foods. It is what makes up the structure of the plant. Eating a plant-based diet improves the health of your gut so you are better able to absorb the nutrients from food that support your immune system and reduce inflammation. It can lower cholesterol, stabilize blood sugar and reduce your cancer risk.
Here are some progressive actions for rebalancing your food consumption toward a plant-based diet.
- Start by cutting out animal protein 1–2 days a week.
- Source meat from local, organic, free-range companies.
- Support restaurants that purchase sustainably sourced organic meat and plant-based options.
- Reduce packaged foods that contain meat products and by-products.
- Once these changes feel natural, you’re ready to reduce meat and dairy consumption to 2–3 times weekly.
- Look for organic, sustainably sourced foods from your local community.
- Buy fish that is locally sourced or responsibly wild caught.
- Incorporate more meat alternatives, or substitute beans and vegetables for meat.
- Once these changes are established in your routine, you’re ready to implement a 100% plant-based diet.
Changing from a diet consisting of a lot of animal protein to a diet based on plants is not done overnight. It’s a process that will take education and commitment. Part of that process concerns you and your body. But the effects go well beyond the food on your plate. As more people support the environmental, health, and economic advantages of consuming more plants, gains are made by communities worldwide.
Author bio: A Living Green Barrie volunteer since 2025, Cynthia Lauer, PhD is a member of Simcoe County Master Gardeners and a regular contributor to The Gardener magazine.