Forest fires, hurricanes, floods, droughts, species extinction — the news can be pretty bleak. Instead of throwing up our hands and feeling helpless, we each have the power to help the health of the planet and ourselves simultaneously, says registered dietician Dana Ellis Hunnes in her new book, Recipe for Survival, what you can do to live a healthier and more environmentally friendly life.
Nearly 20 million acres of rainforest are destroyed for agriculture each year, removing oxygen from the atmosphere and releasing millions of tons of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen, escalating climate change and biodiversity loss, writes Hunnes, also a UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor and senior clinical dietitian at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
“If people were willing and able to reduce their meat and dairy intake by half, it would have a huge impact. We would probably save a third of the water and land we use, and we could feed more people,” she says. Almost half the food humans grow is used to feed animals. Eating a plant-based diet requires significantly less land, water and energy, according to a 2003 studying in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
