Rocking & Rolling On Vegan Earth Day!

The World’s first ever Vegan Earth Day March took place on April 22nd, and coincided with “Earth Day”, which is an annual event that commemorates the birth of the modern environmental movement. Earth Day started in 1970, yet for some reason, its organizers always drag their feet when it comes to acknowledging the critical role that animal agriculture plays in the climate crisis. According to Oxford University’s Joseph Poore, “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…It is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car.” Unfortunately, this information continues to be ignored, as hardly anyone from the US government, US corporate media (a state propaganda arm), or the environmental movement itself, wants to talk about the “food” on our plates, and the elephant in the room, which is animal agriculture. 🙁

“You can’t call yourself an environmentalist, and eat meat. Period.” – Howard Lyman

Climate Healers founder Dr. Sailesh Rao, published a position paper in 2019 that identified animal agriculture as the leading cause of climate change. According to Dr. Rao, animal agriculture “accounts for around 87 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions”. His research also concluded that the annual methane emissions from animal agriculture alone, causes more incremental global warming than the annual CO2 emissions from all fossil fuel sources combined. Wow.
Click here to learn more about the refusal of climate leaders to acknowledge the catastrophic impact of animal agriculture.

The Vegan Earth Day March was great. The activities included street marches, rallies, and other vegan outreach programs in over 50 cities, across 22 countries. I joined the Vegan march in Brooklyn, NY, where I met dozens of lovely and inspiring people, both young and old. Yeah, Brooklyn! The sun came out, and there was a sort of mini “celebration of life” moment for many of us, as we were feeling the exhilaration of meeting other like-minded members of our tribe for the first time. It is always comforting to know that there is power in numbers, and that we are not fighting these battles alone. Kudos to the local organizers, as The Vegan Earth Day experience recharged my batteries to some degree, and reminded me that there are so many compassionate, and smart people out there fighting the good fight!

Also, a special shout out to Sarina Farb, and Chelsea V. Davis, for creating the Vegan Earth Day March. Sarina is a science educator, speaker, and she has a website called Born Vegan. She has been crossing the United States in a “vegan-info-covered camper van” to raise awareness about the ethical, environmental, and health impacts of our broken food system. As per Sarina, “I have been in activism for a good portion of my life. In 2019, I was teaching high school in Kansas City and had the opportunity to help a bunch of my students participate in the Youth Climate March that was largely inspired by Greta Thunberg. I love the momentum and energy I saw.”

Chelsea V. Davis may be best known for her on-camera vegan cooking demos, as well as a number of other plant-based projects. She is the founder of the Vegan Night Market and the co-founder of Animal Rights Collective Portland. According to Chelsea, “It’s time governments start listening to their constituents and stop using our tax dollars to support, subsidize, and bailout animal agriculture, a leading cause of our current climate crisis. Time is running out and we must come together to demand a global shift before it’s too late!”

Lastly, have you heard of Jane Velez Mitchell and her wonderful website, UnchainedTV? She has been knocking it out of the park for years with her compassion for animals, informative interviews, and overall great work. The Vegan Earth Day March event wasn’t even on my radar, until I heard Ms. Mitchell talk about it on her podcast. 🙂
Click here to learn more from Jane Velez Mitchell, and UnchainedTV.

The Bottom Line? The inaugural Vegan Earth Day March was a rock-and-rolling good time! Vegans are 10 million strong in the US at the moment. Let’s hope that our numbers continue to grow, and that sometime soon, Vegan Earth Day, will be celebrated every day. 🙂