A diet for a more sustainable Bay Area — eat more veggies

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is to be commended for promoting climate-friendly diets and discouraging the consumption of meat as part of its plan to lighten our ecological footprint. Our animalbased food system is one of the greatest contributors to climate change, and it demands our attention.

The United Nations warns that animal agriculture contributes more to climate change than the entire transportation industry and is responsible for the widespread destruction of natural ecosystems and the loss of biodiversity. Raising animals for food is inefficient and misappropriates precious and increasingly scarce natural resources, including land, water and fossil fuels to grow and harvest grains and other crops to feed farm animals. We could produce more food, and feed more people with fewer resources, by eating plants.

The Bay Area has an opportunity to create a more just, healthful and ecologically sound food system. Our food can empower and nourish us, or it can make us sick. In the United States, we suffer from heart disease, obesity, diabetes and other preventable dietrelated illnesses. Experts estimate that we could save 70 percent on health care costs by shifting to a whole-foods, plant-based diet.

Some years ago, journalist Michael Pollan suggested that we: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” This remains cogent advice, especially because global meat consumption is increasing along with the human population. In economically ascendant countries such as China and India, where food systems historically have been largely plant-based, animal agriculture is becoming more prevalent. This is not sustainable, and the United Nations is urging people across the globe to curtail intake of animal foods. The Chinese government agrees and is taking steps to limit meat consumption among its populace.

For decades, U.S. consumers have ingested diets rich in meat, dairy and eggs, and we are now suffering the consequences. Excess waste from fertilizer and animal manure contaminates surface and groundwater, and runs into the Gulf of Mexico where it destroys sea life and creates dead zones. California’s Tulare County leads the nation in dairy production. It is named after Tulare Lake, once the largest fresh water lake in the western U.S., now empty, sucked dry by agriculture. The Colorado River has been exploited to the point that it doesn’t even reach the ocean anymore.

California is the most populous and influential state in the United States, and the largest agricultural state. It is also the front-runner in organic production and home to innovative food businesses and entrepreneurs. Linked to climate change, health hazards, and other serious threats, our food system is emerging as one of the most important topics of our day. Bay Area residents can play a vital role in raising awareness and improving our broken food system.

Many problems in this world are outside of our power to change, but we each have control over what we choose to eat every day, and our food choices have wide-reaching impacts. By including food in its efforts to reduce the ecological harm that human beings are causing on Earth, and encouraging residents to eat plants instead of animals, the Bay Area’s pollution control district has also opened up opportunities to improve citizens’ personal health and well-being, and to support a food system that empowers healthy communities. By changing and improving our food, we can change and improve the world.