Eat More Plants.
Eat less Meat,
and other animal sourced foods.
This limits global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions that result from the intensive energy production needed for animal based foods.
Plant focused, vegetarian and vegan diets can be an answer to the diet-Earth connection. But plant based diets won’t completely feed our growing human population. Many parts of the world are unable to sustain crop growth because of climate, soil, and land terrain.
Start Eating Plants
Eating plants is part of any healthy diet.
Fruit, vegetables, beans, grains and nuts are your
go-to plant foods.
Including plants in your diet adds nutrients, vitamins, fiber, water and a huge variety of color, textures and flavors.
Eating more plants can help with weight loss and be part of managing chronic illnesses like diabetes and high blood pressure.
If eating a more plant centered diet hasn’t been in your lifestyle, add plants slowly to adjust to more fiber that all plant foods contain.
The only nutrition advice you’ll really need:
Eat more plants
I have 2 degrees in nutrition. Before I became a Science Teacher, I worked as a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, counseling and teaching nutrition for women and children, dialysis and transplant patients, nursing home residents, and people with eating disorders, diabetes, heart disease, and athletes.
Though there were fine details and specifics for each population, a unifying guide was to eat plants.
Eat more fruits and vegetables! Eat more grains.
Low carbon carrots from Farmers Markets
Check out Farmers Markets near you and talk to the local growers.
Find your local Farmers Market with the United States Department of Agriculture.
The farm products you buy at Farmers Markets grow close to you, and travel less. Less travel means less fuel burned, less fuel burned means less carbon dioxide produced which means less global warming.
Eat Vegan: Plants only, please
Veganism eschews animal exploitation in any form and promotes a plants only diet.
Plants alone are used for food and clothing.
People eat vegan to support animal rights, health, political and environmental concerns.
Plants Go Global Recipes
Plant Lady Vegan Guacamole
I swear by it. People inhale it. Serve with corn chips. Slather it on your favorite Mexican dish.
Keep the 3 avocado: 1 lime ratio, but otherwise vary the other ingredients for your taste or whatever you have available.
Photo from thesarahh.
Ingredients
3 ripe avocados
1 lime, juiced
1 – 2 cloves fresh garlic
1 jalapeño pepper, diced
¼ cup tomatoes, diced or salsa
¼ cup diced fresh cilantro
Kosher salt to taste
Instructions
Mash the avocados.
Stir in everything else according to your taste or availability.
Make 15 minutes to an hour before serving so the ingredients “marry”.
Keep chilled.
Plant Lady Vegan Granola
This is for all you Granola Girls and Guys out there...
This makes for a super filling breakfast that'll keep you from getting hangry.
Ingredients
5 – 7 cups of rolled whole oats (these are the larger flakes)
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup honey or maple syrup
1 teaspoon or more cinnamon, to taste
1 teaspoon or more vanilla, to taste
1 – 2 cups nuts – walnut, pecan, almonds, macadamia, etc.
1 – 2 cups dried fruit – raisins, dried cranberries (Craisens), chopped dates, chopped apricots, cherries, etc.
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Pour the oats into a bowl.
Add nuts to the oats.
Measure the vegetable oil and pour into another bowl.
Measure the honey or maple syrup in the same measuring cup used for the oil (this makes clean up really easy – the honey won’t stick to the cup)
Mix the oil and honey together. Add cinnamon and/or vanilla.
Pour over the oat/nut mixture. Mix thoroughly. Don’t add the fruit yet!
Spread granola evenly onto shallow metal trays.
Place in oven. Every 10 minutes, stir and turn the granola so it bakes evenly.
Bake for about 40 minutes till it’s uniformly brown.
Let cool, then add the fruit.
Plants, Meat and Sustainability and Land Use
Is a meat based diet Earth sustainable? Livestock grown for food produces carbon dioxide and methane (yep, cow farts), both warming greenhouse gases. This worries many people.
Many animals that people eat also eat plants. The grain, grass or feed grown has to be harvested and transported by gas or diesel powered vehicles to the animal farms. The animals eat the grain, grow and are harvested for the meat market.
Once the meat is processed it’s refrigerated to stay fresh. Refrigeration relies on fossil fuel – gas or diesel - then refrigerated trucks transports the meat to stores, burning even more fuel, adding CO2to the atmosphere and adding to the warming Earth. Once sold, the meat travels in carbon dioxide producing vehicles to homes and restaurants. Meat gets cooked using gas or electricity energy, which releases CO2 again.
Free Range animals forage on grasses and low lying plants called forbs.
Yet overgrazed land can be a problem for plants and soil.
Plants can't grow fast enough to regenerate; soil gets too compacted for plant growth.
Feedlots cramp animals into small spaces to minimize calorie burning and enhance weight gain so the meat can be brought quickly to market. Feedlots pollute because waste urine and manure are produced. The waste can pollute soil and water.
low lying plants – and these cows, goats, and sheep are an important part of some human diets such as the African Masai, Samburu, and Rendille people, and Mongolian nomads.
Scientific research and opinions
Connecting your diet with health and Earth’s sustainability
Compelling reasons to reduce warming greenhouse gases by going vegan
Which diets can feed the world?
Can food plants grow on all types of land?
Which diet feeds the most people and uses land most sustainably?