Last month, the world’s leading body of climate scientists, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published the fourth and final installment of a rigorous multi-year assessment that marks their most dire and urgent climate analysis to date. The report synthesizes scientists’ key findings, predictions, and recommendations for the best ways to reduce […]
Beans Can Save Your Heart, and the Planet
Did you know that pulses— the dry, edible seeds of legumes, which includes beans, peas, chickpeas, and lentils— are one of the best foods for heart health? Not only do they confer a host of protective and preventative heart benefits, but doctors say eating pulses every day can actually help treat heart disease and related […]
Feed vs. Food: How Farming Animals Fuels Hunger
Have you ever heard the claim that 86% of animal feed is inedible to humans? This statistic is often used to imply that animal farming merely uses the waste from farming human food. However, the research behind this figure shows the opposite: animal feed competes with food security. Let’s break it down: Byproducts and crop […]
Earth Day? We Need An Earth Diet, Scientists Urge
In their most dire climate report to date, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has urged a switch to plant-based diets as the single most important shift individuals can make to halt the course of climate warming and prevent the most catastrophic impacts. For the first time in 34 years since the United […]
Holiday Gifting Got Your Goat? Don’t Have a Cow. Don’t Send One, Either.
The holiday season is here, which means many of us are aswirl in festive decorations, joyful songs, gift-giving ideas, and of course, advertisements luring us in for lots and lots of shopping. Yet as the COVID pandemic continues to threaten our global health and economic stability and the ongoing climate crisis wreaks havoc around the […]
The Secret to Farming for the Climate
A major change to how we farm is not only necessary, it’s inevitable. The 2019 Climate Change and Land IPCC report described the need to focus on changing land use and current agriculture practices in order to address the climate crisis. A quiet but growing trend of stock-free, otherwise known as veganic, farming can protect […]
Get Your Protein From Nuts, Not Meat Says Major Medical Study
In one of the largest multi-year studies of its kind, a report published last year in the International Journal of Epidemiology looked at more than 81,000 Seventh-day Adventists in the US and Canada, with participants pretty evenly split between vegetarians and meat-eaters. From 2002 to 2007, participants kept records of what kinds of foods they […]
Environmental Organizations Say Eat Plants for the Planet
In recent decades, leading environmental organizations and policy makers have been conspicuously silent on the environmental impacts of our food choices. In particular, many activists have critiqued the absence of dialogue around the disproportionately destructive impacts of animal agriculture. But that appears to be changing.
Pastoralists Switch from Herding to Growing Crops
Animal gifting charities encourage supporters to purchase cows and goats for families in countries experiencing extreme hunger and poverty, often pointing to traditions such as pastoralism and nomadic herders’ longstanding reliance on livestock for sustenance. However, in response to climate change, pastoralists are increasingly abandoning animal husbandry and shifting to growing drought tolerant crops and climate resilient, indigenous fruits and vegetables instead.
Grass-Fed Beef Means Much More Methane
A new Harvard study finds that shifting to all grass-fed beef production in the U.S. would require 30% more cattle just to keep pace with present production. It would also increase beef’s methane emissions by 43% and would require more pastureland than we have. The researchers conclude the only way to guarantee lower environmental impacts is by reducing beef consumption overall.