Category: Animal welfare

How to Save Our Vanishing World

by Kevin Cochran, posted in Animal welfare, Blue Oceans, Clean Technology, Climate Change, Food and agriculture, Waste and recycling

As reported by CBS news, “Dr. Jane Goodall, the world-renowned conservationist, desperately wants the world to pay attention to what she sees as the greatest threat to humanity’s existence… Her soft-spoken grace somehow helped cushion what was otherwise extremely sobering news: ‘I just know that if we carry on with business as usual, we’re going to destroy ourselves. It would be the end of us, as well as life on Earth as we know it,’ warned Goodall.”

Time running out to save biodiversity as species go extinct, leading scientists say

The question is not whether our human resolve will be great enough to avert disaster (i.e. what the warning signs are telling us about climate change, extinction of species, and the vanishing of the world as we know it), but how we will do it. Everyday the sun shines is another day for optimism in our collective human spirit and ingenuity. And ingenuity begins when the biggest of problems reveal themselves.

Today, all it takes is a computer or smartphone and a few Google searches to discover the full scope of what we’re up against. The good news is that we can take meaningful action and re-plot our planetary trajectory away from global warming and the sixth mass extinction. But time is running out.

How can we save our vanishing world? Acknowledge the challenges before us. Heed the warning signs and educate yourself about the extent of the crisis. Seek out solutions like from Project Drawdown and get involved, or create your own solutions like these ambitious sisters.

Each one of us has a role to play. We can change our individual behaviors which in aggregate can change the world. Consider your purchase decisions and consuming less overall. Consider reducing meat and dairy in your diet. Consider some of the best ways to reduce greenhouse gases at home.

We’re all in this together. Just as we find common purpose in fighting our way out of the COVID-19 pandemic, together we can fight to change course and save our vanishing world.

If you’re new to Sustainability X, welcome! We will present solutions to the climate change crisis over the coming weeks and months, and how you can get involved. Please join our movement and follow us by clicking the “FOLLOW” link in the footer below!

Can We Find a Sustainable Choice Among Fast Food Fare?

by Kevin Cochran, posted in Animal welfare, Climate Change, Food and agriculture, Health, Plant-based foods

The Introduction of a Sustainable Fast Food Brand: Jackie Mays

[Forewarning: this post is a self-serving advertisement; I hope you will forgive and indulge me!]

Searching for prepared food on the go forces us to make unwanted choices. We buy convenience and low price, but we’re often presented with non-nutritious food quality and very unsustainable restaurant options.

Spurred by the onslaught of alternative meat suppliers and considerable consumer demand for plant-based options, the major hamburger fast food chains have reacted by adding plant-based burgers to their menus. And bending to pressure by the investment community and a tacit recognition of climate change as an existential threat, as well as consumer affinity with brands which act sustainably, McDonald’s has recently placed targets on reducing its total greenhouse gas emissions. While these and other reactions are noteworthy, they nevertheless fail to address the fundamental problem for consumers forced with making undesirable choices.

Enter Jackie Mays Burger Grill, a sustainable fast food restaurant franchise for meat lovers and vegetarians alike. If you’re like me, and are concerned about the environment and animals, you have probably also searched in vain to find a healthier fast food alternative that was affordable and convenient. Personally, I just couldn’t support fast food restaurants any longer that have such a poor record of sustainability. So I decided to start something new.

Step One, Exceed Fast Food Burger Taste and Quality

We source our plant-based meats from only the top suppliers, such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. Then we combine our own plant-based alternative-meat ingredients, top our burgers with amazing plant-based cheese, add fresh produce, grilled buns, and our own special sauce to make our own signature Jackie Mays cheeseburgers. Our other menu items are just as good, all plant-based, and indistinguishable to their less healthier contemporaries. We can’t wait to serve people in our own restaurants later this year.

Step Two, Create a Movement

Unlike other fast food restaurants, our movement is about standing up for climate action, animal welfare, and social justice. For example, our burgers will be responsible for emitting 80-90% less greenhouse gases than burgers from animal meat; and where Jackie Mays will harm no animals, fast food companies are responsible for ordering meat of slaughtered animals that have mostly been treated inhumanely in factory farms: over a million cows per year for McDonald’s and that’s about 25 annually per restaurant.

Step Three, Tell the World About It

Jackie Mays will be the first-of-its-kind fast food franchise that serves only plant-based foods at affordable prices. We’re building a brand based on sustainability and that has the power to disrupt the fast food industry.

Step Four, Crowdfund to Build a Movement

We know starting a restaurant is hard and they have low success rates. But unlike traditional mom & pop restaurants, Jackie Mays will be the first-of-its-kind restaurant at the beginning of a plant-based and food revolution (see my post Better than Beef?) and will be backed by professional investors.

There are many more steps to make, but now this Step Four is the most important. Even with our exceptionally talented team, we can’t start this movement without YOU!

You can find more answers to questions in the FAQs on our crowdfunding campaign page and don’t forget to watch our other videos and learn about why we named our concept “Jackie Mays.” In closing, I invite you to help us create the first-of-its-kind sustainable fast food brand; and I invite you to join our movement, support our campaign, and let’s break new barriers with Jackie Mays! Thank you.

If you’re new to Sustainability X, welcome! We will present solutions to the climate change crisis over the coming weeks and months, and how you can get involved. Please join our movement and follow us by clicking the “FOLLOW” link in the footer below!

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It’s a Game Changer

by Kevin Cochran, posted in Animal welfare, Climate Change, Food and agriculture, Health, Plant-based foods

Where does protein come from? It comes from meat, yes, but it originates in plants. And that is the central point of The Game Changers eye-opening documentary.

 

When elite athletes can improve their peak performance by converting to a plant-based diet, it utterly negates the ubiquitous and now debunked claims that meat-eating makes us stronger and healthier. How can it be that a vegetarian or vegan diet can actually make us more physically fit, healthier, and stronger than the perceived strong-man, armed-hunter, meat-eating archetype we’ve been conditioned to believe? Arnold Schwarzenegger sums it up in one word: marketing.

The Game Changers movie (on Netflix), produced by James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jackie Chan, shows that our health is the top reason to eat less meat from animals. However, there are numerous other benefits of incorporating plant-based foods into our diets, none-the-least of which as said by Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh is that “making the transition to a plant-based diet may be the most effective way an individual can stop climate change.” Of course, it also helps reduce the sadly ever-increasing amount of animal suffering attributed to raising and slaughtering animals.

Wouldn’t we all be better off if we could just eat less meat? According to Project Drawdown, “Plant-rich diets reduce emissions and also tend to be healthier, leading to lower rates of chronic disease. According to a 2016 study, business-as-usual emissions could be reduced by as much as 70 percent through adopting a vegan diet and 63 percent for a vegetarian diet, which includes cheese, milk, and eggs. $1 trillion in annual health-care costs and lost productivity would be saved.”

Yes it can be difficult! Not only is meat-eating profoundly personal and cultural, it has been presented to us throughout our lives as the best choice, as well as normal and ethical. Now, not so much (…search “Ethics” on my previous post “Better than Beef?” on LinkedIn or my BLOG.) Fortunately, plant-based foods are proliferating and giving us all many more delicious choices. Times are changing from the days when “vegan” foods meant to plug your nose and swallow quickly. Some tasty examples include the alternative meats from Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, Nestlé, and others; as well as amazing recipes from The Game Changers, Plant Based on a Budget, among others.

The first step may be to become a “flexitarian” and go from there. As reported by CNN, “This flexitarian diet includes plenty of fruits, vegetables and plant-based protein sources including legumes, soybeans and nuts, along with modest amounts of poultry, fish, milk and eggs, and small amounts of red meat.” Even if you’re not planning to become an elite athlete, going plant-based may just help you live longer and help save the world.

 

 

If you’re new to Sustainability X, welcome! We will present solutions to the climate change crisis over the coming weeks and months, and how you can get involved. Please join our movement and follow us by clicking the “FOLLOW” link in the footer below!

#sustainabilityX