The Sierra Club is working to ensure that agricultural practices become increasingly sustainable, and that ecosystem and health impacts from modern farming practices are reduced and eliminated. Part of the Sierra Club’s policy on Agriculture and Food is to encourage a diet increasingly reliant on plants. Sierra Club volunteer Terri Wilkerson offers some guidance and resources for a plant-based diet here.
Eating more plant-based foods is the quickest way to help the planet, according to 92% of 200 climate scientists surveyed for an April 2024 report by the Harvard Law School Animal Law and Policy Project. A 2010 United Nations report cited in an article in The Guardian states that “Agriculture, particularly meat and dairy products, accounts for 70% of global freshwater consumption, 38% of the total land use and 19% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.”
A peer-reviewed article from the Permanente Journal explains that “Healthy eating may be best achieved with a plant-based diet (which encourages whole, plant-based foods and discourages meats, dairy products, and eggs as well as all refined and processed foods).”
For streaming documentaries on how plant-based eating makes you stronger and faster and gives you the ability to prevent and reverse diseases, watch Code Blue Documentary or The Game Changers.
An 2022 article by Daniel Francisco Pais, António Cardoso Marques and José Alberto Fuinhas found plant-based eating costs less than the standard American diet with meat, eggs and dairy. Savings estimates vary from 16% to 29%, according to different reports from the National Institutes of Health.
Important to note is that concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) provide the worst lives for animals and produce food that is not safe. The majority of people get their meat, eggs and dairy from CAFOs. Read this Sierra Club report for more.
So now what? Focus more on “adding in” instead of “cutting out” by learning new plant-based recipes. The more new things you try, the more new foods you will find to love, as talked about at Vegan.com. And, check out additional resources on plant-based eating at https://vegmichigan.org/, MinimalistBaker.com and ItDoesntTasteLikeChicken.com for many great tips and recipes.