With New Year’s Day around the corner many people will be open to finding ways of changing their lifestyle for the better. There is no better time of the year than January to try vegan, the official month of vegan lifestyle, Veganuary 2022 is set to be the biggest ever. Veganuary is a non-profit organisation that encourages people worldwide to try vegan for January and beyond. During the 2021 campaign, more than 500,000 people took part to try a vegan diet and over 825 new vegan products and menu options were launched worldwide. It is easier than ever to try a vegan diet with vegan food ranges in all major supermarkets and most restaurants and food service chains offering vegan options that actually taste good and are well thought through. There are a multitude of benefits to switching to a plant-based lifestyle including physical and mental wellbeing, ensuring that no animals come to harm through your own actions and vitally the positive impact a vegan diet has on the climate crisis we face.
Animal farming is known to be one of the worst polluting industries on the planet, one of the most effective steps that individuals can take to halt climate change is to stop eating meat, eggs, and dairy products. Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation. For years the narrative in the media and even from environmental charities has avoided the topic of agriculture-based pollution, this is slowly beginning to change. It is beginning to become widely acknowledged that animal farming is one of the biggest causes of greenhouses gas emissions, water pollution and deforestation worldwide.
The statistics are shocking and staggering in equal measure, livestock and their by-products account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide per year as well as 65% of all human-related emissions of nitrous oxide. Without serious societal behavioural change, the emissions from agriculture are set to increase 80% by 2050. The amount of land used for cattle rearing is another worrying issue caused by our demand for meat and dairy, livestock covers 45% of the earth’s total land and is responsible for 91% of Amazon deforestation. The loss of biodiversity caused by land depletion will have untold effects on our ecosystems and environment, something scientists warn could be catastrophic to our planet.
For years the idea that fish were sustainable or could be fished sustainably has been pushed by the media and the food industry, unfortunately this is not the case. With the current demand for fish and seafood there is no way fishing can be sustainable, overfishing is a real and serious problem. Three quarters of the world’s fisheries are exploited or depleted with 90-100 million tons of fish being pulled from our oceans each year. Many methods of fishing incur what is known as by-kill, dolphins, sharks and many other species not intended for capture are caught up in nets and die or are injured. The rate in which we fish could potentially cause fishless oceans by 2048. If more people cut out fish from their diets, then the idea of fishless oceans never has to be realised, the mass extinction of water species must be halted.
For some switching to a vegan lifestyle can be daunting and appear to be a real struggle, this is where the Veganuary campaigns come in handy. Veganuary helps ease the transition into a plant-based diet, through offering celebrity cookbooks, meal plans, nutritional guides as well as supporting emails helping to coach you through the one-month challenge. Setting it over a month appeals to those who are uncertain about commitment but want to feel good about trying and those who like a challenge. 2022 is set to be the biggest year on record for vegans, the availability of quality vegan food is skyrocketing alongside increased awareness of the personal and global benefits of becoming vegan. A study published in New Scientist magazine shows that each person can reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that their lifestyle contributes to climate change by up to 60% by going vegan. If you would like to join the New Year’s Revolution then visit www.veganuary.com where you will be able to find more information and helpful tools and guides for your journey into a more sustainable lifestyle.
Bond Morgan bags are proudly vegan, using sustainable plant-based leather alternatives no animals are harmed and all of the materials used are sustainable with a low carbon footprint. Find out more at https://www.bondmorgan.com/shop
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