Global warming, climate change and environmental disaster are problems for all citizens of this planet Earth.  Therefore, reducing the food carbon footprint that contributes to the problems should be within everyone’s interest.  If we are not part of the solutions to reduce the food carbon footprint, then we are part of the problems.

       Food carbon footprint can be understood simply as the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by our end-to-end effort, upstream to downstream activities, to provide the food that we

eat.  This includes activities such as growing, rearing, farming, processing, transporting and finally cooking and disposing 

We don’t normally realize this but every single step in the value chain above creates gas emissions.  Our end product, the food that we choose to eat, determines the preceding activities.  Therefore, if we choose the right food to eat, then the preceding activities will also be adjusted to meet the end goal.  If we choose to have a vegetarian meal every day,  the preceding value chain will also adjust to prepare food that is Earth friendly.  We need to reduce our carbon footprint now; else the world will not be a better place.

We have come out with a petition entitled ‘A Vegetarian Meal A Day Keeps You and the Earth Healthy Every Day’ . In our opinion,  eating vegetarian meals is considered to be one of the fastest ways to slow down global warming. Every vegetarian meal can contribute to environmental protection.From the health perspective, vegetarians appear to have lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure and lower rates of hypertension and type of diabetes than meat eaters. Otherwise, vegetarians also have a lower overall cancer rate and lower risk of chronic disease. Hence, having vegetarian meals will definitely keep us healthy.

Besides that, it has a positive impact on the environment if we have a vegetarian meal every day. Pollution from the livestock industry also causes water pollution because animal waste is discharged into waterways. Feed crops also contain many pesticides, antibiotics, hormones and chemical fertilizers, which will kill fish and algae, endanger the health of freshwater, reduce animal husbandry, increase the demand for plant products, and have a knock-on effect of improving crop growth.

Global warming is a real threat for all of us.  One of our team members’ dad, in his early 40s, used to go to a place in Indonesia called Puncak during his teens.  Puncak is a highland in West Java Province in Indonesia, about 2 hours’ drive from Jakarta, the capital city.  It was developed during the early 50s right after Indonesia’s independence to provide a getaway for busy Jakartans.

During his teens, Puncak was a really nice place, with smooth, cool and calm weather.  You would not need to turn on the air conditioners during the day or night because the weather was just perfect. As time passed by, more and more people came to visit Puncak, houses, restaurants and shopping malls started to open.  As traffic started to build up, pollution and deforestation also led to rising temperatures in Puncak.  These days, the weather and air quality is no longer as fresh as it used to be in Puncak.  These all changed within the last 20 - 30 years.  Imagine what it would be like in the next 50 years from now! This shows how global warming can change our environment badly.

We need to reduce our food carbon footprint and we need to do it now.  We need to get everyone involved, this means you and I are responsible to make this work and save our Earth. There was a very interesting story that happened in the US. There were many starfishes lying on the shore dying from lack of water and heat after a storm. A father and son happened to take a stroll on the shore that morning and they saw the starfishes.  The son immediately took an action to pick up one starfish and threw it back to the sea while the father was watching him. The father stopped his son after some time because he thought that the action was a waste of time as his son can’t save all the starfishes. The son replied, “Yes Daddy, I will never save them all, but at least I know I have made a change for this one starfish.”

The morale of the story is although the road for the journey is long, yet we must start now.  As one Chinese proverb says, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”, we all need to start small and start now.

We, as the younger generation, would like to play our part to deliver the awareness of food carbon footprint and we do hope that you will support our petition.  Help yourself and the environment at the same time. Share this information on all platforms and channels that you know of. In this digital age, information can go viral in hours.  All it takes is a few people who believe in an idea and start sharing it to others. Let’s start the journey of ‘A Vegetarian Meal A Day, Keeps You and The Earth Healthy Every Day’.