Letter: Help protect the planet with a vegan diet

Thanks to Richard Fireman for creating dialogue regarding climate change in his letter “City Council Needs Missionary Zeal” in the Sept. 19 issue of Mountain Xpress. I would add we all need missionary zeal around protecting our planet, and Ashevilleans are, for the most part, conscientious and want to do the right thing.

So, what is the single most important thing each of us can do? The answer is written about eloquently in a recent article [avl.mx/5c7]: “‘A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use,’ said Joseph Poore, at the University of Oxford, UK, who led the research. ‘It is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car,’ he said, as these only cut greenhouse gas emissions.”

I think Asheville could lead the way by posting colorful educational signs throughout the city listing ways for each of us to protect the planet, with eliminating meat and dairy at the top of the list. Perhaps we would be one of the first cities to think outside the box and do something like this. It would cost very little, yet the cost of not educating the public is devastating.

— Miriam Hard
Asheville