r/Anticonsumption • u/effortDee • Dec 04 '23

David Attenborough has just asked everyone to go plant based on Planet Earth III Environment

Attenborough "if we shift away from eating meat and dairy and move towards a plant based diet then the suns energy goes directly in to growing our food.

and because that is so much more efficient we could still produce enough to feed us, but do so using just a quarter of the land.

This could free up the area the size of the United States, China, EU and Australia combined.

space that could be given back to nature."

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u/InstanceAgreeable548 Dec 04 '23

I’m in the north and we don’t have Aldi. Anyway, you’re preaching to the choir here because I don’t consume animal products. The fact is that for many families with young children cows milk is the cheaper option. Our breastfeeding rates are some of the lowest in the world, and formula is stupid expensive. I feel lucky to breastfeed my daughter and other than allergy exposure tests she’s been kept cruelty free. It’s not an option for a lot of mums here who are struggling to keep the house warm, never mind worrying about animal welfare or environmental impact.

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u/CHudoSumo Dec 04 '23

Nice good on you.

People in the grips of tough poverty where small amounts of money in the shopping bill break their ability to keep a house heated should consider saving money by not buying meat. They could probably then afford to get the fortified soy milk thats perfectly fine as an alternative to cows milk for 1 year olds.

I understand not having the bandwidth to worry about things because of stress but in terms of reasons the vast majority of people in western countries cant go vegan/plant based, cost is very rarely one of them.

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u/InstanceAgreeable548 Dec 04 '23

It’s very complicated and you’re definitely right but there’s a real lack of knowledge even on things like nutrition. I could make a lentil soup to last us two days that’ll be less than £2 probably but that’s because I know how to make it. If another mum has the same £2 she could end up buying frozen, ultra processed chicken nuggets or something because she sees it as ‘protein’. I’m sure you get it yourself with people wondering where you get your protein from 😂 when in reality me and the tiny lady are getting a lot more than some of our McDonald’s loving friends. There would need to be a big cultural shift, lots of education etc. It’s a tough one with no easy fix.

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u/CHudoSumo Dec 04 '23 edited Dec 04 '23

Haha yeah i do all the time.

Definitely making that dietary change requires people deliberately educating themselves or being educated as well. Theres a lot of great free resources online for those who want them these days. I think the biggest shift is the mental one to accept that you have to change. It's hard for people in our societies.

As i'm guessing youve noticed too, once you stop consuming animal products you notice just how much people use them (unnecessarilly) and just how relentlessly they are pushed with marketting and advertising to the population. It's totally bonkers. People will buy meat, fry it in butter, put cheese and an egg on top of it and drink a milkshake with it! Haha. Even if you ignore the ethics, it's really absolutely crazy how misused and abused animal products are. It's totally unsustainable, our governments even subsidise the industries as well like you say. Totally nuts, it's just a big greedy scheme from the meat and dairy industries to keep people buying their unsustainable, unhealthy, unethical products. And the net is so strongly cast over the average person from the very beginning of their lives.