The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970 and over the past 40 years it has grown into a worldwide observance. Earth Day provides an annual opportunity to celebrate our planet and renew our commitment to building a healthier and cleaner world… but we don’t need to limit our commitment to one day out of 365! Good environmental citizenship can easily be a year-round practice of eco-friendly living. Adopting a vegetarian diet tops the list of beneficial choices we can make for the Earth, as it is the single most influential action we can take that will affect our personal impact on the planet.
Environmental benefits of a vegetarian diet
The Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom (www.vegsoc.org) offers this succinct description of how eating vegetarian will benefit the environment worldwide. Choose to go veggie and you will:
- Avoid excessive CO2 production
- Reduce methane/nitrous oxide production
- Save large amounts of water
- Avoid polluting our streams/rivers/oceans
- Reduce destruction of topsoil & tropical rainforest
- Reduce the destruction of wildlife habitats & endangered species
- Reduce the use of antibiotics, growth promoters and chemicals
What you can do:
- Make every day Earth Day by choosing to eat a plant-based diet. You have the power to help conserve land and resources, clean up the planet, end world hunger, and spare animals from agonizing slaughter… with every bite you take!
- Shop Down to Earth Organic & Natural to explore and adopt an eco-friendly, compassionate, and wholesome vegetarian diet.
- Become informed! Visit www.downtoearth.org for support in your vegetarian lifestyle. You’ll find a variety of environmental topics, nutritional information, health tips, recipes, events, and more. Click on the website’s ‘Environment’ button to read Down to Earth’s “Top 10 Reasons Why It’s Green to Go Veggie.”