The Social Side Dish to the Plant-Based Diet

So far, we’ve covered the environmental and lifestyle aspects of adopting a more plant-based diet, but how can this be applied to the local community? Well, it turns out shooting for a more plant-based diet can have positive societal impacts and give you a chance to develop you own story on how you want to help your community! The social justice that comes from going plant-based has influence in a lot of areas, from addressing the conditions of workers in animal product-producing facilities to stimulating the local economy, which adds to the impressive power that plant-based foods hold.

And we cannot forget that teaching people the benefits of plant-based foods, teaching them how to prepare it, and what influence they can have on both their lives and the surrounding community. By bringing this cooking program to the tenants at Indwell Woodfield Gate Apartments, we’re teaching them how to cook for themselves in a sustainable and affordable way. We are building community and expanding their horizons to other cultures, local food vendors, and local services that are right next to them! Eating plant-based doesn’t necessarily have to be about veganism or “green” ways of thinking, it can also simply be a way to better connect with people who live in the same region with you. For instance, I would have never had the chance to meet the wonderful tenants at Indwell if I didn’t decide to help work this project for Indwell and the broader community. And I wouldn’t have had the chance to share what we’re doing with all of our readers. It is through initiatives like this that I believe we can inspire other such projects in the London community and further abroad. Even if you don’t want to take up a plant-based diet after following our program (which is an entirely respectable decision to make), I hope that you can come away with a renewed appreciation for plant-based foods and the movement behind it.

But following a more plant-based lifestyle also has the benefit of eliminating what are called food deserts, places were healthy and affordable food is limited. Access to food can also be racialized, as some predominantly African American neighbourhoods in the United States are avoided by some retailers/grocery stores. Incorporating more plant foods into your diet can encourage your local region’s vendors to invest in more plant-based products and service your region better by demanding that healthier sources of food are provided. Improving accessibility and equity in plant-based food is key. This also provides a good opportunity to support local farmers, providers, and businesses by purchasing their plant-based products. On one hand, this is a more environmentally conscious choice for the environment, but it also stimulates the local economy and brings more money into the hands of your fellow residents and municipality, rather than have that money be collected by someone in the top 1%.

Now, as we covered in an earlier blog post, animal product production uses an staggeringly high amount of space for the amount of food it can provide. This is in contrast to using the arable land to grow crops, yields a much greater quantity of food! But also consider this: 700 million tonnes of human grade food is fed to livestock every year. 700 million tonnes. By using this food as livestock feed, we are decreasing our global food supply and therefore driving the cost of food higher and contributing the world hunger situation. How is that equitable? Exactly, it isn’t. Given that across the world, farmer’s produce enough food to feed the world’s population 1.5 times over, that is a travesty. Feeding livestock is important, but we also have to consider how much we need to rely on animals for our own sustenance because spending so much of our valuable food on livestock does contribute to global hunger given the low yield of meat products in comparison to the amount of plant-based food lost in its wake.

For one, in meat-processing plants, workers may be subjected to unfair pay or incredibly long working hours in relation to the compensation they receive from their employer. The strain that exists in these high pressure jobs leads to fatigue and a further increased risk of injuring oneself on the job. And not to mention that animal cruelty within mass-production farms is a massive societal issue in of itself. With many of the livestock placed into these facilities being social animals, the cramming of these animals into tight spaces is very inhumane to say the least. Furthermore, sometimes animal slaughtering practices can be hurtful to the animals and is not seen as a peaceful endpoint for these animals. This is in comparison to more humane forms of animal slaughter practiced in other cultures or by some religions, which brings the least pain to the animal as possible. All together, between all the livestock and humans in the process, the conditions found in the mass animal product industry are a violation of basic human and animal rights and serves as a reason to advocate for changes to the animal industries “best practices”.