Plant-Rich Diet

Impact - HIGH

About 94% of humans eat meat. According to Drawdown moving to a plant rich diet is the 4th biggest impact we can have on carbon dioxide draw down (Approx 66 Gigatonnes of our 1,000 Gigatonne drawdown target) to make the climate safe again.

Logic

Meat production is causing forests to be cleared at an alarming rate and cattle account for 1/5 of the global carbon emissions. Clearing forests stops them drawing down carbon dioxide, while the livestock that take their place produce methane which is a greenhouse gas. Reducing red meat intake is a good idea because excessive consumption of red meat causes cancer.

Action

1. Start by only eating high quality, local farm, organic meat but reduce portion size of meat while increasing vegetables such as an extra potato or rice

2. Try to have at least 1 vegetarian meal a week

3. Next cut down red meat to once a week and if needed replace red meat with chicken / pork or fish

4. After 3-6 months you will naturally want to stop eating red meat (believe me I was in love with it)

5. Even lamb, pork, chicken and fish start to become less-appealing once you stop eating red meat

6. Following this process you may accidentally become vegetarian but as long as you reduce your meat intake and increase your plant based diet you are making a massive difference to the climate and your health.

Resources

Vegetarian burger recipes!

Where you live impacts how much meat you are likely to eat

30% of India is vegetarian

Great recipes to follow online

Available here

When traveling in the US use the eatwell guide

Did you know about 80% of the worlds population depend on plant based medicine.?

If you are done with the diet it is time for you to become a change maker