plant-rich diet mission content
onboarding/commitment for crew members
Welcome to the mission!
Reducing the amount of meat you eat is one of the best ways you can alter your habits to help reduce emissions. Not only that, eating less meat can significantly improve your personal health.
Most Americans eat more meat protein than our bodies need. Also, eating more meat increases your risk of having a heart attack or a stroke. If you reduce the amount of meat you eat, you will help yourself be healthier in the long run.
Meat has a massive impact on emissions - if cows were their own country, they would be the 3rd-highest in greenhouse gas emissions in the world! (Cite: Drawdown) Why? First of all, a massive amount of land is used for feeding livestock (both for grazing and growing feed) - this land is often deforested, so the trees and soil that would be natural carbon sinks are eliminated from the ecosystem. Second, significant amounts of fossil fuels are used to power farm machinery. Finally, cow manure, burps, and farts produce methane and other gases that have a negative impact on the climate.
So, what’s the impact of eating a hamburger? What would be the impact if all Americans ate …. X less meat?
- The average impact of an average American meal with beef is 10kg of CO2
- If all Americans continue to eat the average amount of beef per meal, we will generate 108 Gt (gigatons) of CO2 over 30 years - and for every meal where we choose to eat plants (assuming tofu) instead of beef, we will generate 4.9Gt less of CO2
- Emily’s calculations here based on data from the University of Oxford study summarized by the BBC
Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth
Biggest analysis to date reveals huge footprint of livestock - it provides just 18% of calories but takes up 83% of farmland
www.theguardian.com
Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth • www.theguardian.com
Food’s Carbon Footprint
Food's #carbonfootprint - what is it and how can I reduce it? #foodprint #climatechange
www.greeneatz.com
Food’s Carbon Footprint • www.greeneatz.com
(link: What’s a gigaton, anyway?)
(link: What difference can I make as a consumer?)
To achieve the mission, you and your fellow crew members will take new actions every week.
Week 1: Eat one entirely plant-based meal (instead of meat)
Week 2: Eat two entirely plant-based meals (instead of meat)
Week 3: Eat three entirely plant-based meals (instead of meat)
Week 4: Eat four entirely plant-based meals (instead of meat)
Have a special mission for vegans/vegetarians
- I’m a vegetarian or vegan already
To have an even greater impact on emissions, you can complete extra missions every week:
Which ones would you like to sign up for now? You can also sign up for extra missions throughout the month.
For (one [or more?] day a week / as many meals as I can), I will
- Eat chicken, pork, or fish instead of beef
For (one [or more?] day a week / as many meals as I can), I will
- Eat a plant-based protein instead of meat