Another challenging year, 2021 continued to see significant progress toward the goal of shifting to more sustainable, compassionate and healthy plant based diets. This blog recaps the year, with links to many of our blog posts from 2021.
Earthsave Canada is proud to have joined the Coalition for a Sustainable Food Transition, a group of Canadian environmental and animal welfare organizations promoting a dietary transition among Canadians towards more plant-based foods.
The controversial new Netflix documentary, Seaspiracy, takes viewers on filmmaker Ali Tabrizi’s quest to understand the harm being done to our oceans, and what the real causes of this damage are. Tabrizi quickly learns that the greatest threat to marine life is, in fact, commercial fishing. Whether large scale fishing could ever be done “sustainably” is doubtful, and in any event it is far more ethical to eat a plant-based diet.
The use of misinformation by plant-based advocates is damaging and undermines our collective goals. The facts are on our side. Follow our tips for using an evidence-based approach in your advocacy.
In his new book, Bill Gates outlines a plan for the world to get to net zero greenhouse gas emissions. While emphasizing meat and dairy as the main culprits for emissions in the agricultural sector, he gives short shrift to veganism as part of the solution, instead claiming it is unrealistic. Veganism should be viewed as one of the easiest to achieve and most sensible changes humanity will need to make in order to avoid the impending climate disaster. It is hoped that Gates’ views will evolve as the explosion in popularity of plant-based diets worldwide continues, and he will recognize that veganism is necessary if we are serious about getting to zero.
Remember, we didn’t all come together and decide that eating a diet heavy in animal products is a good idea. A lot of factors got us to where we are, but for most of us, we just grew up eating what our parents gave us and continued with a similar pattern in adulthood because that’s what we knew.
It seems clear that the recent attacks on “veggie burgers” and dairy alternatives are not really about protecting consumers from being misled.
Earthsave Canada’s submission highlights the serious damage that animal agriculture does to the environment, including through greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, water pollution, biodiversity loss, and inefficient use of land and water resources.
The government’s effort to support and accelerate innovation in plant-based foods is exciting and welcome news, as the evidence overwhelmingly shows that producing protein from plants takes far less land, water and energy than producing protein from animals, and of course spares animals from the cruelties inherent in animal agriculture.
The relationship between animal consumption and human illness is well established. The widespread adoption of a plant-based (vegan) diet could protect us against future pandemics.
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