Choose small acts for big impact: your diet affects every SDG
By Dawn A. Byford ESRAG Plant-Rich Diet Task Force Co-Chair
September, 2024
Ever wonder how far-reaching your environmental actions truly can be?
When I first joined Rotary, my focus was on the little things I could do in my own community to help those in need. The passion and effectiveness Rotarians have for helping others greatly inspired me to serve, and still does today. But I must admit, when it came to climate change, I felt my reach alone was limited.
Since joining ESRAG’s International Plant-Rich Diet Taskforce in 2021, my eyes have been opened to how much potential our seemingly small daily actions have for positive change, even on a global scale. “It surprises many people to learn that the food we eat, the farms that grow it, and the landscapes we’ve cleared all contribute to climate change. And contribute in a big way,” writes Jonathan Foley, PhD, Executive Director of Project Drawdown.
How big, you may ask? What we eat each day can’t really make that much difference…can it? But just think: Rotary has helped immunize 2.5 billion children with millions of small actions – one day at a time. Now it’s time to save all the 2 billion children currently on Earth today, plus the 6 billion adults, and the trillions of creatures. Their future and ours depends on our collective actions.
Rotary International is a strong supporter of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Recently, all of ESRAG’s Task Forces were posed an interesting question – which of the 17 UN SDGs do we align with, and how?
The results of our research were more far-reaching than I’d ever imagined. The simple choice to eat more whole plant foods and less animal products on a consistent basis supports all of the 17 UN SDG’s, giving us a powerful tool to help humanity and our planet to thrive and survive! As the World Resource Institute states: “We are what we eat, and what we eat has a profound impact on the planet.” Want to know how? See below…
ESRAG is a powerful resource for Rotarians all over the world to help accomplish these critical UN sustainability goals, and to help your club bring the true “Magic of Rotary ” into the world!
Environmental and social impacts of food production are often hidden from us as consumers, making it hard to determine which foods are the most sustainable, conscientious, and healthy. In addition, the final retail price of food we buy is often not a true representation of the actual cost to produce that food, which can include production costs, societal costs, healthcare costs, and especially the costs to our planet and its inhabitants.
The ESRAG Plant-Rich Diet Task Force stands ready to help individuals, clubs, and districts reduce their environmental impact and improve human health through healthier dietary choices. Our webpage is loaded with helpful resources, and you can reach us at [email protected]. Like us on Facebook or Instagram.
Here’s how choosing a plant-rich diet supports all 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
1 – No Poverty:Extreme drought in many parts of the world has made animal agriculture unsustainable for subsistence communities. Climate-resistant, nutrient-dense food crops hold the key. Rotary’s Food Plant Solutions RAG can help your club with projects to address malnutrition and food security.. Extreme poverty is inextricably linked to global food security.
2 – Zero Hunger: Reducing consumption of animal-based foods among the world’s wealthier populations could free up significant amounts of land, likely enabling the world to feed 10 billion people in 2050 without agriculture further expanding into forests. If all the grain in the U.S. currently fed to livestock were fed to people, this could feed 800 million people, which is 9 out of 10 of the world’s undernourished population.
3 – Good Health and Well-Being : Plant-rich diets have been shown to prevent, treat, and sometimes reverse chronic diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, some cancers and autoimmune disorders. Watch documentaries like “What the Health?” or “Forks over Knives” to learn more
Experts warn that concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), more commonly referred to as “factory farms,” are setting the table for the next pandemic. Scientists warn that crowded conditions and prophylactic use of antibiotics are creating an environment ripe for viruses and bacteria to evolve and jump from animal to human populations (avian flu, swine flu). Around 65% of antibiotics used in the US are administered to livestock.
4 – Quality Education: Children typically adopt the eating habits of their families, and children who are hungry or who suffer from poor nutrition have academic and behavior challenges in schools. By educating communities about the benefits of whole food plant-rich diets, we contribute to better health and better learning outcomes for children and their families.
5 – Gender Equality: It is common for women and children to disproportionately suffer from climate change. Project Drawdown cites plant-rich diets as the #2 or #3 most impactful solution to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.
6 – Clean Water: Nearly 75% of global freshwater resources are now devoted to crop or livestock production. The largest user of water in the U.S. is the cattle feed industry. Run-off of contaminants like manure from Concentrated Animal Feed Operations (CAFOs), as well as pesticides and fertilizers used to grow animal feed around the U.S. have contaminated 34,000 miles of U.S. rivers and contaminated groundwater in 17 states. This toxic runoff also causes eutrophication (growth of algae and oxygen depletion for living organisms) and has resulted in fouled beaches and dead zones along coastlines.
7 – Clean Energy : Eating whole plant foods not only greatly reduces resource use and pollution of the planet, but provides our bodies with “clean energy” – high levels of fibre, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, in addition to good quality protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats: all the ingredients essential for our bodies to run well.
8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth: The Food System Economics Commission calculates that the economic damage – including malnutrition, obesity, loss of biodiversity, pollution, and climate change – generated by unsustainable food systems exceeds the value they add to world GDP (see Pg. 7). A 1C increase in global temperature leads to a 12% decline in world gross domestic product (GDP), six times worse than previously thought. In addition, many farmers and workers in the industrial animal agriculture industry – including commercial fishing – suffer racism, harsh working conditions, low pay, and poor quality of life. By moving away from industrial animal agriculture toward more plant-based diets, we can increase opportunities for more diversified, resilient, local, and independent farms that provide productive work, sustainable livelihoods, and better environmental and natural resource management. Marginalized communities can particularly benefit from this increased economic capacity.
9 – Industry Innovation and Infrastructure: A global shift to plant-rich diets will disrupt the animal agriculture industry. However, if we begin to devise strategies now to help livestock farmers and feed crop growers to transition their livelihoods to new, sustainable businesses (see Transfarmation and Dairy Farm Transition), they will be able to take advantage of emerging opportunities in sustainable food systems, capitalize on carbon sequestration on their land, and grow crops to supply the booming plant-based food industry. In May 2020, the founder of Impossible Foods said that the plant-based meat industry will need the millions of workers now employed in animal agriculture.
10 – Reduce Inequity: Climate refugees are on the rise, and it’s estimated it’s often those at the lowest socio-economic levels that suffer the most from climate change. Workers in CAFOs are often those who are undocumented and have no other choice, plus there are few protections for them. The Smell of Money reports that industrial farms are typically located in marginalized communities.
Wild edible plants have been used by tribal communities all over the world for food and medicine. Deforestation for agriculture is taking away their access and knowledge of these traditions and food sources. See page 9 of this publication by the Journal of Ecological Society.
11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities: One of the elements of a sustainable city is urban agriculture. By 2050, almost 70% of the world’s population will live in cities. How do we create inclusive, healthy, and sustainable urban region food systems? By moving away from long supply chains and the resulting carbon footprint of shipping food from far away, and taking advantage of lots of surface area in cities – rooftops, yards, parking strips, etc.- to grow crops, we can increase food sovereignty and health in cities and communities all over the world.
12 – Responsible Consumption “If the world’s 2 billion high consumers cut their meat and dairy consumption by 40%, it would save an area of land twice the size of India and avoid 168 billion tons of future greenhouse gas emissions, three times the total global emissions in 2009,” reports the World Resources Institute. Refer to these Sustainable Diets Charts for more information.
If all the world ate like North Americans, we would need five Planets Earth. Many of us do not realize that half the world’s crops are fed to livestock, not people. It takes on average of 39kg of plant food to produce just 1 kg of animal-based food. But there are hopeful solutions!
13 – Climate Action: “Global food production is the single largest driver of environmental degradation, climate instability, and the transgression of planetary boundaries,” reports the EAT Lancet Commission. Project Drawdown cites plant-rich diets as the #2 or #3 most impactful solution to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Marine sediments are the world’s largest pool of carbon storage and the commercial fishing practice of bottom-trawling contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions.
A study published in Nature in 2020 found that if the world were to cut meat consumption by 70%, land currently used for pasture and feed crops could theoretically be returned to nature for regrowth of native forests and grasslands. The resulting carbon sequestration potential (332 Billion metric tons of CO2 by 2050) would provide humanity with desperately-needed time to roll-out green energy systems and infrastructure without exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming.
Industrialized Animal agriculture is responsible for the transgression of many planetary boundaries, according to the 2023 article by Katherine Richardson et al in Science Advances: “One of the most powerful means that humanity has at its disposal to combat climate change is respecting the land system change boundary. “We are at a point that “Earth is now outside the safe operating space for humanity,” writes Australian ecologist Gerard Weddernburn-Bisshop.
“Food systems have the potential to nurture human health and support environmental sustainability; however, they are currently threatening both,” write Walter Willet, Jacob Rockström, et al in The Lancet.
14 – Life Below Water: The World Wildlife Fund cites agriculture and fishing as two of the leading drivers of nature loss. Seafood consumption has doubled in the past 50 years and 94% of ocean fisheries are overfished or maximally-sustainably fished. More than 80% of Indian Ocean dolphins may have been killed by commercial fishing since 1950 and shark and ray populations have crashed more than 70% in the last 50 years due to commercial fishing.
15 – Life on Land: The global food system is the #1 cause of biodiversity loss since ecosystems are destroyed to produce food, especially to produce animal products. 77% of the world’s farmland is used to graze livestock and grow livestock feed. Yet, the livestock industry produces only 18% of the world’s calories . Cattle grazing for beef is the #1 driver of tropical deforestation . The next largest driver is soybean and palm oil production. 76% of soybean production is for animal feed.
According to the 2022 Living Planet Report, wildlife populations declined by 69% globally and 94% in Latin America between 1970 and 2018.
16 – Peace and Justice: Global demand for animal products has led to increasing and sometimes violent displacement of indigenous peoples from their traditional homelands. Mass migrations from the Middle East and Central America are exacerbated by the impacts of climate change.
Industrialized animal agriculture is responsible for 75% of global freshwater use for feed crops and livestock “Lack of adequate water is considered by some as one of the greatest threats to civilisation, and has already led to millions of people leaving their homelands….By 2030, half the world’s population will be living in areas of high water stress, and the world will be facing a 40 percent global water deficit,” write the producers of the documentary Eating to Extinction.
17 – Partnerships: Plant-Rich Diets complement work in the areas of climate, environment, human health, public health, food security, animal welfare, and many other areas. In addition, when we partner with all 1.4 million Rotarians to increase plant-based choices in our shared meals, we can support positive changes for our own health and that of the planet’s. It’s a win-win!
Captions:
The graphic on agriculture’s impact on planetary boundaries comes from Bruce Campbell, et al, “Agriculture production as a major driver of the earth system exceeding planetary boundaries,” 2017
Photo by Kris Cameron: Summer plant-rich potluck hosted by the Wenatchee Confluence Rotary Club, Washington State, USA
Thumbnails of the SDGs are from the UN
Current : 2023 Richardson et al – Six of the Nine Planetary Boundaries have been exceeded.
