Take a break from meat
Take a break from meat to reduce your impact
Your Challenge
Have a meat-free day this week to reduce your environmental impact.
- You can simply add more protein rich foods to your meals – such as eggs, nuts, and legumes like black beans and chickpeas, or;
- You can switch out meat for substitutes, if you do, the less processed the better (as these will have a lower footprint and be healthier), so look for plant-based alternatives made from vegetables, wholegrains and legumes, low in salt, sugar and fat.
Why you're doing this
Our current food system has multiple impacts on our natural world, including:
- Being responsible for 27% of all greenhouse gas emissions
- and 70% of freshwater consumption.
- An increased rate of destruction of a vast area of rainforest to grow soya, over 75% of which gets used to feed the animals we eat, such as pigs and chickens .
- It also increases the risk of future pandemics, for example industrial farming (such as battery farming) and meat markets have been the causes of many pandemics due to low quality, poor sanitation and unhealthy conditions;
- and is the main driver of biodiversity loss and tropical deforestation[1]
By reducing our demand for industrial agriculture we can help reduce these impacts on our planet.
How you'll make a difference
Right now, the demand for meat is unsustainable for our planet. By eating more vegetarian and vegan whole foods, we can start to ease the pressure on our global ecosystems – and reduce global risks of premature mortality. [1]
It is time to #FixTheFoodSystem. By doing this challenge you are also taking part in WWF-UK’s Eat4Change campaign to encourage sustainable diets and join the fight for our planet.
Track your progress
in the My Footprint App
Track your progress and discover many more challenges in the My Footprint app. Available for iOS and Android devices.
