In honor of Earth Day, here are 5 things you can do to save the planet.

Hint: they all add up to just one thing. Go vegan!

When I feel helpless about my inability to affect the course of government policies or corporate agendas, I take comfort in my ability to take personal action in every bite of food I eat.

Animal agriculture creates 18% of our greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than what all the cars and trucks on the road emit.

Eating plant foods has such a massive impact in shifting our trajectory, that it was a no brainer to me 9 years ago, and I’ve never once looked back with even a microgram of regret.

How to save the planet: 5 steps to go vegan

1. Replace hamburgers with veggie burgers!

Cows produce 150 billion gallons of methane per day. One pound of beef requires 2500 gallons of water.

2. Replace chicken with chickpeas!

There are 9 billion chickens producing 1/4-1 pound of waste every single day.

3. Replace fish with flaxseeds!

90-100 million tons of fish are taken from the ocean every year, and for each pound of fish there is up to 5 pounds of by-catch – including 650,000 whales, dolphins and seals and 40-50 million sharks. We could see fishless oceans by 2048. I will be 66 years old.

4. Replace eggs with flax or chia eggs!

It takes 477 gallons of water to produce just 1 pound of eggs.

5. Replace dairy with almond milk! and coconut yogurt! and all non-dairy options!

One pound of cheese requires 900 gallons of water. One gallon of milk requires 1000 gallons of water.

3 ways to make going vegan work in your real life:

If you’re ready to take this road, I’m here to help you! This is the BIG WHY behind every single thing I do in my life, in my work, in each and every video I share with you – to show you how to make this hugely effective change easier and more fun, and how to get balanced nutrition so you stay healthy.

Our planet needs us to take action, and you can affect change from your kitchen.

We can do this!!! Join me, and thousands of others who have been through these programs to change their lives – and save animals and the planet at the same time.

1. veganook recipe club:

100’s of my recipes in a fully searchable database + nutritional info + adjust portions + create your own meal plans + shopping lists. Play with new recipes >>

2. Meal Plans:

Let me plan your meals to show you exactly what to eat so you can get all the nutrition you need, and the right portions to fuel your body, without having to think about it. Super planners unite >>

3. Cooking classes:

Learn to easily pull together healthy, tasty vegan meals that you and your family love every day. Learn to cook new foods >>

Each step in the right direction, no matter how big or small, is incredibly valuable.

If you need to make it super simple, check out this great infographic with 3 Easy Rules of Plant Based Diet

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Articles to read further:

• Get your stats fix on Cowspiracy
• CNN: Go vegan, save the planet: “It may sound hyperbolic that our roast beef sandwich is contributing to environmental degradation of the planet. But mounting evidence of the impact requires our attention and action as global citizens. And each of us can do something about it, today, by taking what we eat as seriously as we take climate change.”
• The Economist: Why eating more vegetables is good for the environment: “A widespread switch to vegetarianism could curb emissions by nearly two thirds and veganism by 70%.”
• The Atlantic: If Everyone Ate Beans Instead of Beef: “With one dietary change, the U.S. could almost meet greenhouse-gas emission goals.”
• Time Science: How a Vegetarian Diet Could Help Save the Planet: “There is huge potential,” says study author Marco Springmann, a researcher at Oxford University, “from a health perspective, an environmental perspective and an economic perspective, really.”
• Reuters/NBC News: Vegan Eating Would Slash Food’s Global Warming Emissions: “By eating less meat and more fruit and vegetables, the world could prevent several million deaths per year by 2050, cut planet-warming emissions substantially, and save billions of dollars annually in healthcare costs and climate damage, researchers said.”
• Salt: How reducing meat eating can save the planet: “On current trends, the global agriculture sector will consume the world’s entire carbon budget by 2050. This would mean that every other sector, including energy, industry and transport, would have to be zero carbon to keep global temperature rises below the United Nations’ target of 2 degrees Celsius, which the report says would become an “impossible” goal. It concludes: “Dietary change is essential if global warming is not to exceed 2C.””
• The Guardian: Climate change’s first victims are always those least to blame: “The Yawanawá people of the Amazon never got to open the toybox of consumer capitalism. Yet they endure floods, displacement and dispossession.”