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You got to hand it to Larry at About.com. He’s got a way of putting things. But he’s totally spot on with this article. Simply put, the more plant-based your meal is (breakfast, lunch, dinner, Taco Bell, whatever) the kinder you are being to the earth, your body, your neighbor and those who work to provide us with our animal foods around the world, and those who live nearby.

David Pimentel, professor of ecology in Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences found that the production of animal protein demands over eight times as much fossil-fuel energy than plant protein production. Fossil fuels means petroleum, coal and natural gas, all non-renewable energy sources. Livestock also releases tremendous amounts of methane into the atmosphere for all of us to deal with, causes harmful soil erosion seriously compromising the future use of land, and pound-for-pound, wastes energy that others could be using. For this reason, it is not difficult to understand that choosing a glass of soy-milk over regular milk, salad over a steak, vegetarian chili over chicken/pork/beef chili is not just an environmental decision, it is an environmental justice decision.

So maybe eating a peanut butter & jelly sandwich won’t exactly save our planet (though I think sometimes a bagel with sprouts and tomatoes could.) At least you know decisions like that are a step in the right direction for a healthier world.

Creative Commons Photo Credit

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