Veganuary

You might have heard of Stoptober and Dry January, which are well known schemes to promote a healthier lifestyle for a month by quitting smoking and giving up alcohol respectively. This week I was introduced to the equally catchy scheme, Veganuary.

Yes you've guessed it, Veganuary promotes becoming vegan for the month of January and I've already made my pledge. 

Before you start to wonder what on Earth me giving up animal products for a month has to do with Man vs Earth, after spending a whole term blogging about the harmful impacts humans have had on our planet, it is probably time I do something to try and help. 

It seems pretty unusual to some people, but I was brought up as a vegetarian because neither of my parents eat meat. Although I would like to think I never strayed from being a vegetarian due to environmental and ethical motivations, it is probably due to habit that I have never bothered to eat meat. Going vegan is a way I can challenge myself a little further and try to reduce my direct influence on the environment.

Although the primary aims of Veganuary are to reduce suffering of animals and try out a healthier diet, the knock on effects of adopting the lifestyle could decrease your impact on the environment more than giving up flying or driving.

Let's look at the facts:

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) found in January 2014 that 14.5% of global greenhouse emissions come from livestock production. This leads on to research done at Cornell University which shows that it takes 40 calories of fossil fuel energy to create 1 calorie of food energy from beef, in comparison to the 2.2 calories it takes in fossil fuels to produce 1 calorie of food energy from edible grains. It is clearly more sustainable to switch meat for plant produce. A vegan diet could more than half your greenhouse gas emissions.

Furthermore, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) approximately 30% of biodiversity loss is due to livestock farming. It has been estimated by Rainforest Concern that 200 square metres of forest is destroyed to produce every 1lb of beef. As we have seen, we could be heading towards a 6th global mass extinction, but cutting out animal products will help to prevent this.

The way I see it, veganism tackles the biggest problems the globe is facing. Firstly, cutting out animal products from human diet can aid food security by leaving us with more grain for humans than for livestock. Secondly, producing less meat and dairy reduces emissions and in turn can counter climate change. Finally, losses of biodiversity can be prevented if there is less habitat destroyed for farm land. So while you are all enjoying your Christmas dinners, gorging on turkey and pigs in blankets (or nut roast in my case), please consider giving up one month of meat and dairy to test out the vegan diet and do your bit to reduce environmental damage.

Merry Christmas and wish me luck in the new year!

.