Did Rabbi Saphire’s Kol Nidre sermon motivate you to reduce your carbon footprint so we will have a livable planet to pass on to our children? Did you know you can easily fight climate change three times a day? Animal agriculture is a key contributor to climate change. Plant-based diets also directly and indirectly require less water and land, feed many more people, produce much less pollution, and are healthier than animal-based diets.
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Food production generates about 25% of greenhouse gas emissions (“Study: Going vegetarian can cut your food carbon footprint in half” by Brad Plumer. Vox.com, Jun 13, 2016). A 2014 British study found plant-based diets have a 60% lighter carbon footprint than meat heavy diets:
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(“Heavy meat eaters” – more than 3.5 ounces of meat per day. “Medium meat eaters” – 1.7-3.5 oz. “Low meat eaters” – less than 1.7 ounces.)
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UN reports animal agriculture causes more greenhouse gasses than all transportation (“UN urges global move to meat and dairy-free diet,” theguardian.com 6/2/10)
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Rainforest destruction is largely due to animal agriculture, and pollution runoff creates dead zones in our oceans (onegreenplanet.org)
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A typical diet requires up to 2.5 times the amount of land compared to a vegetarian diet and 5 times that of a vegan diet (vegsoc.org, referencing other sources)
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Water gallons consumed per gram of protein: beans, lentils, peas, etc. 5, eggs 7.7, milk 8.2, chicken 9, and beef 29.6 gal./gram (Huffington Post 10/13/2014)
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Health benefits of a healthy plant-based diet: Improvements in weight loss, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, mortality, and more (Nutritional Update for Physicians: Plant-Based Diets – NCBI – NIH. Perm J. 2013 Spring; 17(2): 61–66)
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