From my birth in 1995 until 2014, I didn't care about the environment.
I wasn't concerned about what I was putting in my body, or how wasteful I was being. I didn't get sad when those ASPCA commercials would come on, or when people on TV would tell me all about the polar bears and how endangered they are.
I was desensitized to the trouble around the world because I couldn't see anything happening in my own backyard, yet. Global warming was a joke to me and I thought Leonardo DiCaprio was the biggest hypocrite in the world. These were my thoughts and feelings up until last year.
Anyone who knows me knows how crazy in awe I am of River Phoenix. At first, I only admired his passion and talent in acting until I learned how much more passion he had for the environment. He was a vegan, animal loving, environmentalist "nut."
Researching him lead me to John Robbins -- an author who popularized the links among nutrition, environmentalism and animal rights. His book, The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World, was my turning point and I knew I needed to start making changes.
So, I stopped eating meat.
I then found the documentary Cowspiracy on Netflix and it blew my mind. I was so blissfully unaware of the irreparable damage that is caused and inflicted on our planet for the sole purpose of providing meat to billions of people. Now, I'm 98 percent vegan (milk is thrown into everything, sometimes I accidentally eat something with it). We've become too accustomed to fast food hamburgers and Tyson chicken nuggets that it's literally destroying our planet.
I'm not hating on those who run family farms and are just trying to survive; my dad is a rice and soybean farmer and my family raises cows -- I admire all of the hard work and time he puts into supporting our family and keeping us happy and content. He's the driving force behind me wanting to learn more, even though he doesn't know that. My problem is with the big corporations who are so greedy and don't give two craps about what they are doing to the makeup of our planet.
I'm not perfect, I slip up and make mistakes all the time (Oreos will be the death of me). I'm just trying to become conscious of what I'm doing to my body and what I'm doing to the environment around me.
Here are a few of the facts I learned from Cowspiracy. Click here for the link.
2,500 gallons of water are needed to produce 1 pound of beef.
5 percent of water consumed in the U.S. is by private homes. 55 percent of water consumed in the U.S. is for animal agriculture.
Animal agriculture is the leading cause of species extinction, ocean dead zones, water pollution and habitat destruction.
Animal agriculture is responsible for up to 91 percent of Amazon destruction.
1,100 land activists have been killed in Brazil in the past 20 years.
More than 6 million animals are killed every hour for food
"As I look and see our world the structures we have created such as the buildings and roadways I wonder...we have created such immense infrastructure to live comfortably on this planet, to prosper seemingly happy as our little world quietly spins through space...but are we happy? - Ian Somerhalder.
Becoming a vegan has made me happier and connects me more to the world, and that's the thing we are all looking for, happiness and connection. To become more conscious of what you are doing to yourself and the environment isn't weird, it's human.
"We are taught to consume, and that's what we do. But if we realized that there really is no reason to consume, that it's just a mindset, that it's just an addiction, then we wouldn't be out there stepping on people's hands climbing the corporate ladder of success." - River Phoenix
“Your life does matter. It always matters whether you reach out in friendship or lash out in anger. It always matters whether you live with compassion and awareness or whether you succumb to distractions and trivia. It always matters how you treat other people, how you treat animals, and how you treat yourself. It always matters what you do. It always matters what you say. And it always matters what you eat.” - John Robbins
