Giving Up Plastic or Going Vegan?

The topic of plastic consumption, specifically single-use plastic, reared its head in a health-oriented Facebook group to which I belong. The crux of the argument I want to highlight is that single-use plastic is terrible for the environment and is a huge cause of global warming, even when you're recycling it. 

I have no doubt we should avoid single-use plastic whenever possible in our personal lives. However, what no one ever mentions when they argue about it is that going vegan is still one of the most impactful actions a person can take to save the environment. 

Different sources vary in their assessment of how much animal agriculture contributes to global warming. I've seen estimates ranging from a little more than 16 percent (Sentient Media) to a much higher number, 57 percent, according to a study reported in Scientific American. (Disclaimer: I'm terrible at reading and interpreting stats.) And while they may disagree over whether or not and how much animal agriculture directly or indirectly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, we can all agree it's quite impactful.

Later, I started to wonder about how much single-use plastic the animal agriculture industry uses. I'm not even going to dig around for those figures, but it must be pretty high. And if you factor in the fishing industry and how many plastic nets they discard into the ocean, adding to the overall plastic burden, it's horrific.

I'm not at all advocating for using single-use plastic or for not reducing the use of it on a personal level. But even if we use reusable water bottles and shopping bags and buy items at the market with less or no packaging, all admirable actions, what happens before the item reaches the store is out of our control.

Conversely, what we eat is completly under our control (unless a person is institutionalized or under age and not able to purchase food). The largest barrier stopping most people from switching to a completely vegan diet, preferably a whole plant diet, is what is known as the Pleasure Trap, a phrase coined by Drs. Alan Goldhamer and Doug Lisle in their influential book of the same name. 

The best answer to the question posed in this blogpost's title is do both, but if you have to chose one thing to change today, I'd encourage you to switch to a vegan, whole plant food, diet. If you need suggestions on how to do this, please read one of my earlier posts on the different sources that are already in place to help you achieve this while still loving the food you eat. And better yet, it will love you and the environment in return.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vegan Finishing School

Is there such a thing? I discovered that, yes, there is. Imagine attending a school led by a well-known pioneer of the vegan world, a person you admired and respected for years and hoped to meet one day. In the Fall of 2024, I realized this dream when I enrolled in what I consider a vegan finishing school, the Main Street Vegan Academy, founded and facilitated by Victoria Moran. In the fall of 2000, I adopted a vegan diet. My husband, already vegan when I married him in 1999, inspired me to switch from my mostly-vegetarian diet to a vegan lifestyle in 2000. We raised our kiddo on a vegan diet despite the protests and complaints of well-meaning family members who thought we were crazy. (When we decided to homeschool a few years later, they were sure of it.) The first time I saw the advertisement for Main Street Vegan Academy in American Vegan Magazine, I felt awed and excited. I had discovered Victoria after reading one of her earlier books, Get the Fat Out , published in 1994, on my m...
Read more

Fasting on Days 2 and 3

When I went to bed on the first night of my fast, I felt hopeful, that this time would be different, that I could fast for four or five days without issue. And I didn’t have any anxiety, which I often experience late at night. I slept well. At least I did until 6 a.m., when a wave of nausea woke me from a sound sleep. I knew immediately it was from the water fast. The same thing happened to me the three times I tried fasting at TrueNorth Health Center. I’d make it through the first 30-36 hours with no problem and then, WHAM, everything would fall apart. I felt weak, too, so much so that I couldn’t walk downstairs to the living room.  I decided to wait it out and try to go back to sleep. By noon, the queasiness had subsided to the point where I could watch a video on my tablet. But I was still very weak and stayed on the couch (finally, I could walk downstairs) most of the afternoon, sipping as much water as possible.  By 6 p.m. -- 45 hours into my fast -- the nausea returned s...
Read more

Welcome to the Veggie Shelf!

I'd like to welcome you to my new blog, the Veggie Shelf. I'm a librarian and a vegan and my goal is to share resources with you that will help you live a long, healthy, whole-food, plant-based life and age in the most healthy and happiest way possible. (And yes, for me, plant-based means vegan.) I started on the path toward veganism when I was 12. Of course,  I didn't know it then and I'd never heard the word "vegan." That was back in 1980, and I was at summer camp. Our unit counselor was a vegetarian, and the only other vegetarian I'd ever met was my great uncle Alex, who ate fish, too. The term "pescatarian" wasn't in vogue then, and in my 12-year-old mind, anyone who didn't eat red meat and chicken qualified as a vegetarian. This was light-years before the Internet or World Wide Web and a few years before we bought our first PC (or Mac), and I was ignorant for sure. I could have gone to the library to find books on vegetarianism (...
Read more