By Allie Molinaro

If you could change the world, would you?  

What if you could improve your health, reduce your carbon footprint, lessen the risk of natural disasters from climate change, protect the future of today’s children, and save hundreds of lives from suffering all at once? You can, and it’s easier than you think. One of the best things you can do in 2022 is eat plants, for a change. 

Our animal agriculture system is broken. Animals in factory farms are kicked and beaten, torn from their mothers, crammed into cages too small for their bodies, thrown alive into grinders, and suffocated to death. The livestock sector is responsible for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is over four times the emissions from global aviation and more than the direct emissions from the entire transportation sector. Scientists have indicated that animal agriculture is the leading cause of biodiversity loss and a significant source of air, soil, and water pollution. It is also a top public health risk for antibiotic-resistant and zoonotic diseases.  

World leaders have called the 2020s the decisive decade for the future of our planet. The United Nations warns that we have just eight years as of 2022 to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, and that livestock production and other activities are pushing the planet into a sixth mass extinction. This decade will also determine the next generation’s food security. North Americans eat over six times the amount of red meat, 2.5 times the amount of eggs and poultry, and 1.5 times the amount of dairy that is within the planet’s sustainable capacity. This rate of animal-sourced food consumption is unsustainable if the world is to feed a projected ten billion people by 2050, posing intergenerational injustice.  And the future of the 50 billion animals and counting trapped in intensified industrial agriculture systems worldwide rests squarely upon our choice to condone the current system or act for change.  

It is more urgent than ever to shift to a more plant-based diet. Luckily, this is one transition that doesn’t take teams of engineers or years of R&D to achieve. Everyone can eat plants, and we can do it right now. 

Compassion in World Farming USA is demystifying the plant-based transition with Eat Plants. For a Change., which provides all the tools necessary to start a personal journey toward a better food future. Eat Plants. For a Change. provides strategies for any budget, skill-level, culture, and palate, and offers tips and activities that can be put into practice immediately. 

By signing up for the Eat Plants. For a Change. community, you will receive monthly tips and recipes to keep your journey fresh and fun. You can also join Compassion USA’s Eat Plants. For a Change. Facebook group and access the hub on our website anytime for inspiration.  

Just one person has the power to change the lives of millions for the better. And when we come together, we can change the world.