What did you learn about dietary choices from using the footprint calculator? Now imagine that you could translate what you learned into an effective societal policy on food- what would it be? And how would this policy effect the need to alleviate world hunger?
925 million people on earth do not have enough to eat according to the FAO [Food and Agricultural Organization]. That's almost 1 in 7 inhabitants of our planet!
Food & Hunger >
Can eating more vegetables decrease carbon emissions and end climate change?
We all have heard those articles about how becoming vegetarian or vegan greatly improves you and promotes a healthy lifestyle but will it promote a healthy lifestyle in for the planet? It does and this is how. In an article on ChooseVeg.com, It states that “To produce one pound of animal protein vs. one pound of soy protein, it takes about 12 times as much land, 13 times as much fossil fuel, and 15 times as much water.” This shows how much less of a carbon footprint than growing vegetables versus raising animal
A healthier diet could save money, prevent disease, as well as help prevent climate change. In an article on sciencedaily.com, they did a study where researchers changed the average 2000 calorie diet of an American and made many model diets off it.The diets decreased the intake of red and processed meats, the most extreme diet eliminating them completely. Fruit and vegetable intake was doubled and grains were partially replaced with whole grains. The diets never changed the amount of added sugar, dairy, eggs, fish and non-red meat. The results showed that direc t greenhouse gas emissions dropped by 222 kilograms per year and could contribute 23% of the US Climate Action Plan. Also, it lowered the risk of diabetes and colorectal cancer as well as healthcare going down $77 billion.
This shows that going vegan or just switching up your diet a bit can radically decrease carbon emissions. What do you think about this issue?
This is so true. There are so many benefits you get from switching vegetarian or vegan etc. And we are helping the earth which is very important. Great comment 
I absolutely agree. Everyone should learn to eat more vegetables and then learn to compost their waste in order to keep the earth around us healthier and to keep us healthier. You definitely have this down pat. Good job!
I realized that after this challenge too, I have been rethinking how long my showers are and only taking one shower a day. Also I've been turning off the lights every time i leave a room and encouraging my family to also. Another thing that I did not think of until this challenge was how bad driving is for the environment, since my transportation category was 3x higher than the average I've started walking places, deciding on not flying places unless absolutely necessary, and carpooling with friends whenever we are going somewhere together. I encouraged my mom to buy organic food and eat vegetarian 1 night a week, and to compost food as much as possible instead of throwing it away.