by Isabel Ovalle
Eating vegetables is healthy. This statement will appear obvious for many readers, but what’s surely new to most is that eating meat can be harmful for the environment. These are the main points of the message that a group of over 50 vegetarian volunteers want to spread in Doha, taking advantage of the unique opportunity that Qatar Sustainability Expo and the UN climate change conference offer.
For approximately one month this group will be open to meetings with organisations or parties that participate in COP18 or are just based in Qatar and interested in learning about the vegan diet, which is a vegetarian diet without eggs or dairy.
Supported by Loving Hut, a restaurant chain from the US specialised in vegan food; they have taken part in previous COPs – in Copenhagen (Denmark), Cancun (Mexico) and Durban (South Africa).
The volunteers sustain that, by switching to a diet that replaces all meat with soy, by year 2050, 96 percent of the protein associated carbon footprint could be reduced, given that 70 percent of all water use is associated with agriculture and much of it goes to meat production.
They allude to a report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) by Professor Edgar Hertwich which says that “animal products cause more damage than construction minerals such as sand or cement, plastics or metals”. This academic added on his report that “biomass and crops for animals are as damaging as burning fossil fuels”.
Another study from UNEP, ‘Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production: Priority Products and Materials’, from 2010, concluded that “impacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially due to population growth. A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products.”
On this basis, these volunteers are here to promote an alternative, sustainable life style, standing for love, peace, compassion, economy and healthy eating. They have the belief that a healthy diet is one of the simplest climate mitigation actions an individual can take. Through sharing savory foods and providing science-based information, they encourage COP18 attendees to make the shift towards a plant based life style.
Brenda Wang, Mariela Bernal and Chris Luccarda are three of the volunteers for this cause that have traveled to Qatar. Wang explained to The Peninsula that the vegan diet prevents cancer, and also helps in cases of diabetes or obesity, lowers blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and strengthens the immune system.
Wang added that, by choosing and promoting plant-based foods, “we can minimise the most prevalent and potent source of greenhouse gases within our sphere of influence,” which is industrial livestock production. She stated as well that “this vegan solution brings environmental benefits that include the reversal of desertification and ocean decline to biodiversity recovery and reforestation, as well as the freeing of precious water and land resources”.
In addition, the change to a vegetable diet grants significant improvements to public health, as chronic lifestyle related diseases like diabetes or obesity diminish, while it’s also an economic solution, given that it would bring a reduction in the health and climate change investments.
The ideology of vegans revolves around compassion towards animals, which, they added, are not on Earth to be eaten. From this point of view, Mariela Bernal, a vegan as well, said that currently there are more animals then humans on earth. “There are factories of animals that are fed with the cereals meant for humans, while the ocean, the Earth’s lawn, is also affected”, she added.
Bernal, original from Colombia, residing in the US, warned about the chemicals that are consumed through animals, referring to chickens, which are grown at an unnatural speed and treated with hormones to develop in only three months.
On this issue, Wang explained that people often don’t consider not eating meat because they don’t know how much good it can do to their organism. This circumstance is partially related to the lack of information on media about healthy food and the benefits of vegetarianism in particular.
The group insists on the fact that being a vegetarian or a vegan doesn’t mean “eating only veggie”. They assure that a complete and satisfying diet is possible only with vegetables, nuts, legumes and tofu, among other products. To spread this idea they’ll give out 80,000 organic vegan cuisine cookbooks during their stay in Doha.
During the Conference of the Parties that will take place in Qatar from November 26 to December 7, they’ll hold various workshops, two of them led by Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop, executive director of World Preservation Foundation. He will talk about the greenhouse gases and the short-term solution and long-term fix for this issue. A third workshop will address, what they consider, “the most powerful tool to reduce deforestation and pollution, and radically transform the planet into a more ethical and Arminius place, changing the global food system”.
The Peninsula
