by Ronda Payne/Langley Advance
Willoughby author Dr. Patricia Tallman recently published her book: The Restore-Our-Planet Diet: Food Choices, Our Environment, and Our Health, which outlines the need for a shift towards a plant-based diet and why it’s necessary.
Tallman became a vegan 18 years ago when there were few resources on how to make the shift and what benefit it may have on the planet.
“There were very few books... about how the diet relates to the environment,” she said. “And there still is very little.”
She describes the book as an all-in-one resource for understanding the correlation between diet, health, and health of the planet. It includes recipes and how to make the move to being vegan.
“Basically, someone who is completely unaware of the relationship of what we eat and the environment, and our health can learn about it all in one book,” she said.
“It’s for people who are open-minded.”
Although she is vegan, Tallman noted it doesn’t have to be an “all or nothing approach.”
“If you can’t do it [be vegan] everyday, at least you can do it some days.”
The science Tallman points to outlines that humans don’t need to eat animals to survive. In fact she said numerous professional athletes eat plant-based diets.
“They are discovering that the recovery is better from plant-based food,” she noted.
“Just look at some of the huge animals around us... they are herbivores. We don’t need animal protein to survive.”
Supply and demand are part of Tallman’s focus.
“It’s all based on demand,” she said. “If people don’t want meat, we won’t need animal agriculture. There’s a whole chapter [in the book] on the impact of animal agriculture on the environment.”
Animal agriculture contributes more greenhouse gas to the environment than all forms of transportation combined, she added.
“I’ve taken academic research and translated it,” Tallman noted. “Just to give you some facts to make you more aware.”
“When we further add animal welfare to the equation – the suffering and death of over 70 billion farmed animals worldwide annually – we can no longer ignore the compelling evidence that a shift toward a plant-based diet is necessary for our planet’s sustainability. That is, if we are to achieve a livable future for our planet and all its inhabitants.”
Find more information about the book at www.restoreourplanetdiet.com or to learn about transitioning to what Tallman describes as a cruelty-free diet visit the Langley Herbivores at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/VEVEofLangley/, or contact her directly at pattallman@shaw.ca.
