Can changing to plantbased foods save Earth?

THE success of plantbased products is ‘‘somewhat baffling’’, Rabobank dairy senior analyst Tom Bailey says (ODT, 5.6.18).

Not if dairy analysts read the latest research into animal agriculture from Oxford University in The Guardian.

This fouryear study concluded: ‘‘A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use.’’

For consumers wanting to do the right thing, it can be as simple as putting almond milk on their muesli and ordering a soy flat white.

Even without considering the animal cruelty inherent in the slaughterhouses where our beef and tired dairy cows end up, or the researchproven health benefits of a meat and dairyfree diet, lowering our impact on this planet for the benefit of the environment and our own descendants is reason enough to reach for the plantbased alternative.

Mr Bailey acknowledges ‘‘rapidly changing consumer demands’’.

Thank goodness.

Jillian Sullivan

Oturehua

Queenstown changes

I LOVED Jim Sullivan’s column (ODT, 5.6.18). He’s right, Queenstown has certainly changed.

I spent the New Year of 195758 with a classmate from university in the Borough Camping Ground in pretty cold and wet conditions. The campsite was packed but we got a small nonpowered site for two shillings and three pence a night (less than 25c in today’s money).

Today, the minimum charge for a nonpowered site is $48 per night.

We saw in 1958 with the traditional fireworks and the notsotraditional firing of six rounds from a .303 rifle which caused quite a bit of interest around the town.

I could write more, but I think I’d better claim the 5th Amendment.

John Burton

Belleknowes

BIBLE READING: The Lord your God will always be at your side, and He will never abandon you. — Deuteronomy 31:6.