The Number One Diet To Save The Planet by Brenda Davis, R.D.

[Music] but a diet is really only optimal if it is ecologically sustainable and ethically justifiable we have got to as human beings who are populating this planet at almost eight billion people now we have got to consider the consequences of our food choices beyond ourselves there is no diet that any one individual human being can consume that will reduce our carbon footprint more or help us to preserve the planet more than a plant-based diet and we know that the United Nations environmental program X their expert panel concluded that two activities have a disproportionately large effect on the planets life-support systems and they are animal agriculture especially raising livestock for meat and dairy and the use of fossil fuels and the United Nations environmental program expert panels recommendation a global shift towards a plant-based diet the National Academy of Sciences in 2016 there the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences are reported the following that by 2050 greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by 29% compared to doing what we’re doing now if everybody on the planet followed the global dietary guidelines to eat more fruits and vegetables less meat sugar and calories and 70% if everyone consumed a vegan diet there recommend the author’s recommendation a global shift towards a plant-based diet and of course in order to be truly optimal our diet has got also be ethically justifiable for people in everyone ate plant-based the global calorie supply would increase by an estimated 50% and according to this report in Scientific American it could effectively wipe out hunger and for animals and and you know I mean for people we care deeply about the people that are starving to death but if you take a look at what’s going on with animals today we are slaughtering seventy billion that’s almost ten times the human population we’re slaughtering seventy billion sentient beings every year every year for food and this is not including anything from the oceans this is just land animals the vast majority probably close to ninety percent are raised in K foes ke foes are concentrated animal feeding operations and these if you know nothing about K foes just educate yourself because you know I I don’t think there’s anything that we as human beings can do to justify what we’re doing to these creatures and and you know dr. Albert Schweitzer gave gave us some food for thought when he said the following the time is coming when people will be amazed that the human race existed so long before it recognized that thoughtless injury to life is incompatible with real ethics ethics in its unqualified form is extended responsibility to everything that has life and I guess we could simplify this by saying why should we be contributing to pain suffering and death when it is completely unnecessary not it only is it unnecessary we’re harming the earth and we’re harming ourselves when we do so we need to think about this we have a choice when we consider the consequences of our food choices not just for ourselves but beyond ourselves a plant-based diet becomes an ecological and an ethical imperative and as human beings on this planet we have a responsibility to take action and to do what we can to change our trajectory we are destroying the planet for future generations and it has got to stop and it’s got to stop now and I know sometimes it’s scary but it’s a hell of a lot scarier to think about what we’re facing if we don’t stand up and be counted and and so I will say thank you very much for being here and for attending and and these are some of my books thank you so much thank you thank you so much and I will be here for I leave on the sixth and I’m very happy to meet you to learn from you to share with you and so please don’t hesitate to ask questions or or or if you have information that might be a value please share thank you [Applause] [Music]