By Joseph Thomson
Disclaimer: as you read this article, keep an open mind and finish the reading before coming to any conclusions.
This weekend, the Frontier Environmental Club presented on sustainable eating at town hall in Deerfield, MA. The group addressed how everyone can make a difference to help improve the current environmental crisis. They addressed the fact that the animal industry produces more emissions per year than all transportation on the face of the earth put together. The animal and livestock industry claims about 18% of yearly emissions, while the transportation sector claims about 15% of yearly emissions. So, while people are always telling you to ride a bike to work or take public transportation, it would be a much more worthwhile endeavor to stop eating animal products. When you read that, I’m sure you had a visceral reaction, and some of you probably threw the paper in the garbage can and left the room.“It’s just too hard,” and “I just can’t give up meat” are the sayings I hear every time I try to bring up the environmental impacts animals have. But the world is in shambles, we have already spent a good deal of our estimated carbon quota, and some scientists are saying that we only have 8 and a half years to stop putting out emissions altogether. It is times like these where we all must take drastic steps, where we all must examine ourselves and how we can make the most of ourselves. But this crisis will take everyone to stop. A plant-based diet can save the planet, not only because it will be taking livestock out of the yearly greenhouse gas emissions, but also because it will be putting more plants on the face of the earth. The animal industry clears millions of acres of forest every single year to make room for their cattle, chickens, and pigs. With the halt of the mass-growth of those animals, their population will slowly deteriorate, and then the forests can be replanted, and no more forests have to be cleared. Furthermore, there is so much land that grows feed for livestock, and without so much livestock, we as a people can focus on growing plants to feed ourselves. If everyone can commit to living this way, then a massive amount of carbon and methane will be stopped from entering the atmosphere, a much, much larger amount than attempting to bike everywhere you go. I urge anyone reading this to thoroughly consider what I have said in this article, because if we don’t do enough to slow our emissions in ten years, then the oceans will rise, the storms will become more severe and more common, and we won’t be able to stop it. If anyone has any questions regarding plant-based eating, I’d be more than happy to address them, just ask me.