Canadians can significantly impact the planet’s health and their own wellness by eating plant-based foods.
Canadians are becoming more aware that what they eat can impact the planet. Changing the way we eat to embrace a plant-based diet is a game-changing decision that can put a stop to the environmental devastation caused by animal agriculture.
An estimated 15 to 25 percent of global warming is attributed to animal agriculture, including the direct emissions and the impacts of deforestation. The industry also causes soil degradation and is extraordinarily wasteful of resources. Faced with a climate emergency, it’s clear a diet heavy in meat, dairy, and eggs is not sustainable.
Aiming for a plant-based, more sustainable world
Eating a plant-based diet benefits not only the environment but also prevents animal suffering and has ample health benefits, such as lowering the risk of many serious diseases.
Earthsave Canada is leading the way and encouraging people to make mindful choices about what they eat. Its goal is to promote the widespread adoption of plant-based diets. In addition, the organization offers evidence-based education and promotes awareness of the many ways the plant-based lifestyle can lead to a more sustainable world.
In fact, if everyone switched to a plant-based diet right now, the results would be dramatic. It would be equivalent to removing 9–16 years of global fossil fuel CO2 emissions by 2050. As well, water usage would drop since raising and feeding farmed animals requires enormous amounts of fresh water. On average, it takes 100 times more water to produce animal protein than plant protein.
To learn more about how a plant-based diet can make the world a more sustainable, kinder, and healthier place
Why to Go Plant-Based?
Animal agriculture is responsible, worldwide, for 15% to 25% of greenhouse gas emissions. That is more than all of the cars, planes, trains and ships in the world, combined.
Clearing forests for feed and pasture for animal agriculture is the leading cause of tropical rainforest destruction and is a prime cause of deforestation elsewhere.
People who don’t eat meat are less likely to die of heart disease, have lower cholesterol levels, and are less likely to get high blood pressure, prostate cancer, colon cancer, and Type 2 diabetes.
A plant-based diet can provide all the nutrients you need, as long as you supplement vitamin B12.
Worldwide, over 70 billion farmed animals are raised and killed every year, including over 665 million in Canada.
Adopting a plant-based diet could help to fight global hunger. By 2050, it is estimated that the world’s human population will be near 10 billion. If we don’t change how we eat, we’ll need to farm 70% more land than we’re farming now. If the world were to adopt a plant-based diet, we could feed 4 billion more people using the same cropland that we use now
