Choose your food, save the planet

MANILA, Philippines – The need to find other food sources besides meat is getting very, very urgent.

It’s not just a matter of personal health; it’s about the state of the environment.

“We need to avert the climate catastrophe trap,” warns Dr. Custer Deocaris, a scientist and the founder and chair of Luntiang Lunes, or Meatless Monday Philippines. Initially a public health strategy conceptualized in the United States, Mealtess Monday has evolved into a global movement comprising of 23 countries staging independent campaigns. 

Dr. Deocaris continues, “According to the International Energy Agency, the world has only have 5 years left to reverse the course of climate change by stabilizing excess GHGs.

“Otherwise, by 2050, world temperature would have risen to 2 to 4 degrees Celsius.”

The production of meat as food has contributed largely to the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs). According the fact sheet of Luntiang Lunes, the livestock sector adds greatly to the degradation of the environment:

• The lifecycle and supply chain of livestock products contribute to 51% of worldwide human-caused GHGs. That’s more than half!
• Farming animals for food accounts for 70% of deforestation, 70% of the pollution of global freshwater and coverts 38% of arable land.

The urgency of the situation has lead Dr. Deocaris to conceptualize a project — under Luntiang Lunes — to make people more aware of the problems, as well as present a very doable solution.

On October 1^st, The World Meatless Lunch will be launched as a show of solidarity for the meatless campaign.

As it highlights the positive effects of a plant-based diet on one’s health and the environment, The World Meatless Lunch is asking for something very simple: for this one lunch, do not eat meat, choose plant-based options, preferably indigenous vegetables and brown rice that demand less processing and release less emissions.

At the World Meatless Lunch, everyone is asked to share a “virtual table,” where one commits one plate to help save the planet — literally.

Fighting climate change “one plate a day” seems like a minute effort, compared to the figures that health and environment experts give out.

Dr. Deocaris explains how the aggregation of everyone’s small efforts can make the much-needed difference.

Rappler: How does a meatless diet affect the fight against climate change?

Dr. Custer Deocaris (DCD): It has been found that replacing at least a quarter of today’s livestock products with plant-based alternatives is the only practical way to reduce excess GHGs to a safer level within the next 5 years! It is not too late yet. We have 3 choices until 2017.

• Option #1: Go for healthier plant-based alternatives (like gluten kare-kare, ginataang sitaw at kalabasa, bean burritos, etc.) over the meat-based meals and processed foods to reduce world carbon foodprint
• Option #2: Invest global financial resources on geo-engineering, an inter-disciplinary large-scale intervention in the Earth’s climate system
• Option #3: Invest in space technology and find another planet for humanity to live in  

It’s really up to us to choose.  

Rappler: What are the actual benefits of going meatless?

DCD: You help cool the planet while improving public health and nutrition; address food and water security issues; create alternative livelihood; create the demand for veggies that will diversify our food industries; and help restore biodiversity. 

Recent studies also show that by going meatless, you may even slow down the aging process and be more attractive. Laden with all those cancer-fighting antioxidants, meatless meals can help give you that youthful glow. It’s good for the budget, too.

If all Filipinos will go meatless for even one meal, based on our meat-intake, we can save 750,000 animals from cruel slaughter. 

Rappler: Should we all turn vegetarians, then?

DCD: I am (a) vegetarian, but I am NOT espousing vegetarianism. Let me emphasize that. Campaigning for vegetarianism has led to no more than 5% take-up rate anywhere in the world. 

If one aims to get as many people to participate and summon this collective action towards a sustainable future for humanity, then it is prudent to espouse flexitarianism and emphasize on an individual’s right for an informed choice. That is what Luntiang Lunes (or Meatless Monday) is all about.

Rappler: What is your aim when you campaign for meatless meals?

DCD: For people to be empowered in deciding what is best for them, we need to equip individuals with proper information and knowledge and create an environment that will provide sustainable alternatives for people to carry-out their informed decisions.    

Rappler: Aren’t we already be eating more vegetables, since we are an agrarian country?

DCD: According to the 2008 National Nutrition Survey by DOST-FNRI, the sector that has the highest food insecurity and malnutrition rates is the farming sector — the very people who produce our food are most stricken by hunger.

The Philippines has more than 250 indigenous vegetables yet we have one of the lowest vegetable intakes in the world with an annual per capita intake of only 39 kg. You will find people scavenging for fried chicken in the garbage bins yet there are vase idle lands around them that can be used to plant safe, fast-growing and nutritious vegetables.

With all these ironies in our society, I think perception of food which is largely influenced by media and commercialism is strongly linked to food security and decadent public health.

How do we make people change their perception and attitudes? — That’s a neuroscience problem. As a neuroscientist, I could contribute to perhaps bringing the fight to the realm of the mind. 

Rappler: How is Luntian Lunes (and, in effect, The World Meatless Lunch) relevant to the realities of poverty and malnutrition?

DCD: Filipinos are hungry amidst biodiversity and the abundance of natural food resources. One in 3 children are malnourished.

Among children 6 to 12 years old, based on mean one-day total food intake, vegetables are only about 7% of the total daily intake. With 27% of Filipino living in abject poverty, 1 in 4 Filipino adults are also hypertensive.

Heart disease is our number 1 killer: 1 in 5 Filipinos die of a heart attack. We are among the top 10 in terms of diabetes in the world.

These are metabolic problems that can easily be prevented. Meatless Monday is an effective tool to change dietary habits. – Rappler.com

Join the World Meatless Lunch on October 1, 2012 and make a conscious decision to place only healthy, plant-based food on your plate for your meal. Know how your one plate (at a time) can help save the world; check out www.worldmeatlesslunch.org.