In my family, it is normal for us to have meat at almost every dinner. Until recently, I was unaware of how big of an impact the livestock and the meat industry have on the environment. In fact, 18% of global carbon emissions come from livestock, based on the Food and Agricultural Organization. Because of this, many people are choosing to go vegetarian or vegan to reduce their carbon footprint. Based on studies from the USDA, meat eaters produce 3.3 tonnes of CO2, which vegetarians produce 1.7 and vegans 1.5 (http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/food-car … print-diet). After seeing this information, it's pretty obvious that the best thing for the environment would be to go vegan, although that is not a realistic change for me. However, I will try to convince myself and my family to reduce our meat consumption. I will specifically try to reduce my red meat, dairy, and out-of-season produce, which have the highest amount of carbon emissions. I will also try to observe Meatless Mondays.

Dear Melissa, great idea!  I agree that it is unrealistic for most people to simply switch to being vegan all at once.  It also may not be a healthy switch, as vegans need to be very careful about getting the right balance of nutrition.  This takes research and care, and a lot of people who simpy dive into being a vegan do so without sufficient research.

I started the process of switching to being vegan about 20 years ago over the course of about 5 years, first eliminating mammals, then birds, then fish, then seafood and finally dairy (I did not realize when I started that I would end up being vegan - that was a gradual attitude change as well).  I am not 100% vegan these days (probably about 97% , but I sometimes go for months eating only vegan, am now very aware of what foods i need to eat to make sure I get the proper nutritional balance, and I am quite healthy and fit.

Good luck with your changes to your diet - any effort is helpful!

From my footprint calculator I learned that my food impact is actually pretty low for the average American. I believe that this is because I am a vegetarian currently and I was a vegan for a long portion of time. By not eating meat I am cutting down the use of water and food waste. From documentaries such as Cowspiracy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-XP79o8gqQ) I learned about many steps we can take to save the world that most people aren’t aware of because many companies do their best to cover up one of the leading causes of the drought in the California and the detriments on society, the meat industry. In fact, I learned that cattle production emits more greenhouse gases than all transportation combined. This is because the methane released during the digestive process is 25 to 100 times more destructive than all carnon dioxide from vehicles. Cattle consume and utilize 34 trillion gallons of water per year, the amount of water used to cook one burger equates showering for two months straight. But it is not just beef, eggs use 477 gallons of water, cheese uses 900, a nd all other livestock consumes 1/3 of our fresh water on Earth. I know going vegan is a lot to ask for, however I do think that if humans opted to cut down their consumption of dairy and meat, or go without it for a day a year, our carbon footprint would decrease significantly, and sustainability for life on Earth would increase drastically.