Food for Thought, Food for the Planet
You’re a good person. You’re a compassionate person. You care about climate change. You care that everyone has access to clean water and air. You care about your health, the health of your family, your friends, and neighbors.
But do you know how your food choices affect all of this? Those scrambled eggs, BLT sandwiches, and grilled salmon dinners are affecting planetary health more than you may realize.
Swapping out an animal-based meal for one that is plant-based (think falafel wraps, crispy gnocchi sheet pan dinner, and chickpea, spinach and potato curry) – just once a week (or more!) – can reduce your carbon footprint, and expand your food repertoire. And when we all take this single action, the planetary impact is enormous.
The 10-Day Greener Plate Challenge will teach you the environmental impact of what’s on your plate. And provide the tools to figure out what will work for you. Because when it comes to food, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. And the best part? The Greener Plate Challenge is free. Plus, one lucky participant will have the opportunity to direct a $10,000 donation to an NGO working to improve planetary health, and decrease animal suffering.
How The Greener Plate Challenge Works
Every day, from February 4 – 13, 2025, we will deliver a single email to your inbox with two “challenges” (videos, 2-16 minutes long, and/or a fact sheet) on the link between food and the environment. You’ll also get a Recipe of the Day. The time commitment (not including making the recipe!) will be 10-20 minutes/day. Too busy? Then just choose one of the two options. Or catch up when you have more time (but within the 10 days). Our ask is that participants complete at least one of each day’s challenges.
Daily Emails
Science-based, engaging daily bites, mostly short videos, covering everything from why the world can’t meet its carbon goals without cutting back on beef production, to how to choose the most sustainable fish.
Free Zoom Cooking Class
A live, interactive cooking demo by award-winning cookbook author (Plants for You) Diana Goldman, and Good New Veg blogger Marla Felcher.
Resources
Galore
Easily digestible facts and figures on the environmental impact of your food choices, simple plant-based swaps, recipes for every taste profile and level of cooking expertise, websites and social media platforms for advice and support.
Live Office Hours
Bring all of your questions to the live post-Challenge office hours. Diana and Marla will join you on a Zoom to answer any questions, from where to find tempeh, to why the U.S. government continues to subsidize the meat and dairy industries, but not plant-based alternatives. No matter what’s on your mind, we promise to have an answer.
Prizes! Prizes! Prizes!
When you sign-up to participate in The Greener Plate Challenge, your name will be entered into a lottery, for a chance to win one of three prizes:
1st Place: $10,000 contribution made to an environmental, health, or animal welfare NGO. Among the organizations the winner will choose from are: MSPCA-Angell; Mercy for Animals; New Roots Institute; Reducetarian Foundation; The Humane League.
2nd Place: Cooking class with plant-based chef and award-winning cookbook author, Diana Goldman (Zoom, or in-person if you live in Boston area) for you and five friends.
3rd Place: $150 gift certificate at on-line retailer NoPigNeva.
Your Food’s Environmental Footprint
Did you know?
15% of all global greenhouse emissions come from the production of meat, dairy, and eggs
Animal agriculture produces about the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as the entire transportation sector combined – cars, trucks, planes, and trains
It takes 460 gallons of water to produce a single quarter-pound hamburger; a burger made of lentils requires only 30 gallons of water
Replacing a meat-based meal once a week for a year, with one that is plant-based, can save about the same amount of carbon emissions as it takes to fly from L.A. to NYC.
Learning the link between what was on my plate and the health of the planet changed my diet. The change was gradual. We eat out of habit, and changing habits takes time. Like many, the hardest foods for me to give up involved dairy — cream in my coffee, Humboldt Fog cheese, and gooey pizza.
But here’s what I didn’t anticipate: I added way more foods in my repertoire than I gave up. Because I learned that a limitless world of flavorful food was waiting to be discovered. And I found it.
Which is the point of The Greener Plate Challenge. To share what I learned about our food system. And to give you the tools to eat in a way that is consistent with your values. One meal at a time.
Don’t want to take The Challenge alone? Copy and share this registration page with your coworkers, roommates, friends and family!
“The truth about the climate crisis is an inconvenient one that means we are going to have to change how we live our lives.”
-Al Gore
About Good News Veg + The Greener Plate Challenge
Good News Veg is a plant-based recipe database and blog created from the experimentation and tastebuds of Marla Felcher. Writer, recipe aggregator, former marketing professor, investigative journalist, political hell-raiser, NGO-founder and tree-hugger, Marla created The Greener Plate Challenge to share all she’s learned about how our values are reflected by what’s on our plate. Her goal is to save the world, one cow, sheep and chicken at a time. Deliciously, and while having fun. (Neither The Greener Plate Challenge nor Good News Veg has any sponsors; she is doing this out of Environmental Love, and there is no charge to participate in the Challenge).
