I have recently decided to go vegan after four years of vegetarianism mostly due to environmental benefits. Now my diet consists mostly of fresh fruits and vegetables with occasional grains and nuts. The only reservation I have about my current diet is the amount of soy products I consume, knowing that soybeans are commonly associated with monocropping and the agribusiness. Furthermore, I know most of the fruits I consume on a daily basis travel more than I do, as tropical fruits such as mangoes often come from warmer, Latin American countries. However, I feel better knowing that I have the smallest carbon footprint regarding dietary choices. In fact, the environmental impact and carbon footprint of a vegan diet is almost half that of a regular meat eater, and a little less than that of a vegetarian diet too. Here is a link discussing the differing environmental impacts each diet has. http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/food-car … print-diet

I agree with you that vegan is the best way to go if you want to reduce your carbon footprint. A large part of a “normal” diet that doesn’t play a role in a vegan diet is dairy. Dairy has been shown to be generally bad for you and the environment by recent scientific studies.
    For your own health, dairy poses quite a few problems. When we are babies, and still breastfeeding, our body is able to digest breast milk correctly because of a variety of different enzymes such as lipase. But as we stop breastfeeding, those enzymes start to go away and we are naturally unable to process milk correctly. When we consume milk, especially due to the fact that that milk has to cross species barriers, our body often doesn’t know how to handle it, often causing rashes and the such. Milk is an acidifying animal protein. The protein, PRAL, in milk makes your body neutralize to acid in the milk, and the acid neutralizer needed is most readily available in our bones. So, the more milk we drink, the more our bones weaken (even considering the calcium in milk), and the more of a chance we hav e of contracting rashes and the such. You do build up an immunity if you drink a lot of milk, but it’s still not good for you.
    For the health of the environment, milk isn’t good in that area either. On average, dairy produces 4.5 grams per every calorie consumed. This is second only to meat. (Fruit has a negligibly higher output than dairy.) For every gallon of milk consumed, 17.6 pounds of CO2 is released into the atmosphere. And cattle are notoriously gassy creatures. A single cow puts about 500-600 liters of methane a day into the atmosphere. This would be a manageable amount, if it weren’t for the fact that we use unsustainable practices in the overproduction of cows as a commodity. Our proliferation of these animals, along with all the other unsustainable practices we use in raising cattle, causes massive amounts of greenhouse gases to be produced. This, combined with the fact that it’s unsafe to eat dairy in the first place, makes dairy a stepping stone on the way to leading a more sustainable lifestyle. And the ethics are another matter…

Works Cited:
"The Carbon Foodprint of 5 Diets Compared." Shrinkthatfootprintcom. 23 Apr. 2014. Web. 29 Sept. 2016. <http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/food-car … rint-diet>

United States of America. United States Department of Agriculture. By Dr. L.E. Chase. United                                                                                             States Department of Agriculture, n.d. Web. <https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/5 … riday.pdf>

"Breastfeeding Benefits for Mom and Baby." WebMD. WebMD. Web. 29 Sept. 2016. <http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/nursing-basics>

Living in Guatemala or other developing countries makes it much harder to go vegan. There are not many vegetarian options and theres even less vegan options and the few avaliable are extremely expensive. This maks it imposible for some people to start gtting rid of meats and other products in order to reduce their carbon footprint.

I recently moved to Guatemala and I have been on a vegetarian diet for a little more than 9 months, since the start of the year, I would love switch over to been vegan, however, living here makes it very hard as there are not many supplements for meats and even less for product made out of milk. Just like you, consuming so many soy products has me and my family worried, however, they are the best and usually the only things I can find. I didn't really think about the impact it would have reducing my carbon footprint, but you have a good point, usually, especially if you live in colder areas, most of the fruit and veggies come from warmer countries, in that way my carbon footprint might be lower, as living in Guatemala means that there are many locally grown products.