I'm gonna be meta and say it. How epic is it that the acronym for the spirit of our campaign, "Eating Plant-based Is ºCool" is EPIC?! I only realized this acronym the other day. I had no idea when I made up the sentence. Happy coincidence and a great example of how things serendipitously come together when you are aligned with a heart-focused purpose.
EPIC is a fun and easy way for people to remember the concept of eating a more plant-rich diet to help lower their carbon footprint which in turn helps cool the planet in this climate crisis. I will be using the hashtag #EPICclimateaction to help keep track of content related to this topic. Please feel free to use the hashtag also to help inspire more people to eat more plant-rich.
And yes, because I had to, I created an EPIC collection of apparel and merch for you all to literally wear the message everywhere and anytime you can to help spread the message and inspire action like what our friend in the blog intro photo is wearing.
We're all about JOY here
As you know, one of my intentions with my activism is to help show how plant-based eating is fun, aspirational, and enjoyable to help encourage more people to eat a more plant-rich diet for climate action and other motivational reasons like health and animal justice.
Climate action does not always have to be dreary, depressing or filled with panic and fear despite the fact that indeed yes we are in the midst of a crisis of existential proportion.
If it's enjoyable, it's easier to get more people involved and that's what I'm about because we literally need all hands on deck right now, so get the people in any way that works. No judgements on the how. What matters is the conversions.
Food is a powerful way to help motivate people while having impact on climate change. See, EPIC!
Eating plant-based literally helps cool the planet
As much as I am about fun acronyms, I'm also about data. Plant-based diets reduce food’s emissions by up to 73%, so what we eat as a collective clearly can help to cool the planet from the record highs that are driven by animal agriculture and mass consumption of meat, seafood, dairy, and eggs.
This article in The Economist makes a powerful case, "Treating beef like coal would make a big dent in greenhouse-gas emissions...Cattle are a surprisingly large producer of greenhouse gases."
This chart put together by researchers at Oxford University and the Swiss agricultural research institute, Agroscope, gives a clear bigger view of how various foods vary in their emissions and land use.
At the top of the list with the highest emissions are animal-based foods like beef and lamb, and the lowest emissions are from plant-based foods like tofu and peas which has become a top protein source for plant-based burgers and sausage like from Beyond Meat.
Also important to include is how much methane a gas produced in enormous amounts from cows impacts the climate crisis. Although methane stays in the atmosphere for about 12 years a short time compared to carbon which stays in the atmosphere about 300 to 1,000 years according to NASA, methane has warming power over 80 times greater than carbon, and we don't have that kind of time to spare.
Here is a good video that helps answer the question, "Is Meat Really That Bad?"
In a global climate crisis, the answer is yes primarily because of the scale that industrial agriculture in the form of the factory farm system has become which is not sustainable for nearly 8 billion humans on the planet, and will only worsen as global population increases along with meat consumption. The global biomass of livestock alone is greater than all 8 billion of us combined.
So EPIC is an engaging mindset to help get more people invested in taking more action to reduce their high-emissions foods and incorporate more low-emissions foods which also have the health benefit of no cholesterol, much lower saturated fat if any, and plenty of fiber which is significant as 95% of Americans are not consuming the daily recommended amount of fiber.
Here are some posts I've written to help you and those in your circles learn more and get started eating a more plant-rich diet. EPIC! (Ok sorry, I couldn't help myself. 😄)
