327: Eating Green for a Healthy Planet: Combating Climate Change through Sustainable Food Choices | Ebony Twilley Martin

Ebony Monique  00:00

I think it's one of the easiest. It's one of the first tools or one of the biggest tools that we have. And of course, watching what we put in our mouth is powerful. Because when we eat more greens and plant based diet, we are actually helping to contribute to lowering greenhouse emissions because we know the food supply chain, as it is now is wreaking havoc upon our environment, and also our health.

Maya Acosta  00:29

This is the healthy lifestyle solutions podcast, and I'm your host, Maya Acosta. If you're willing to go with me, together, we can discover how simple lifestyle choices can help improve our quality of life, and increase our longevity in a good way. Let's get started. Maya, again with healthy lifestyle solutions. Tell us who you are. And what brings you here.

Ebony Monique  00:53

I am ebony Swilley Martin, I am Executive Director of Greenpeace us. And of course, since we are flying in climate change anything and everything that has to do with climate change, I'm going to be there. And so of course, the vegan Summit. And eating sustainably is key to ensuring a healthy planet, and also to combating this climate crisis. So really excited to be with the folks today and

Maya Acosta  01:20

tell us a little bit more of how you're telling people about Greenpeace, I will

Ebony Monique  01:24

actually be on a panel today that focuses primarily on how food innovation can help to ensure a sustainable planet. So I'll be on the panel with a few other colleagues and my good friend, Dr. Shweta. And we hope that we can impart something to folks and so that they can learn about tools on their own and figure out how they can be also active in this movement. Yeah,

Maya Acosta  01:51

it's fifth, the most important thing that people can change to help support our planet.

Ebony Monique  01:57

I think it's one of the easiest, it's one of the first tools or one of the biggest tools that we have. And of course, watching what we put in our mouth is powerful. Because when we eat more grains and plant based diet, we are actually helping to contribute to lowering greenhouse emissions because we know the food supply chain, as it is now is wreaking havoc upon our environment. And also our health. Please kind of

Maya Acosta  02:26

explain for someone who has never heard of what say the standard American diet does to contribute to all these problems we have with our climate.

Ebony Monique  02:36

Great question. So actually, our food system as it stands now contributes to 80% of the deforestation basically, taking away our forests, and we know we need our forests, we need our trees to even breathe. But because the food system is so heavily dependent upon livestock, we are wiping out our forests just to produce more meat and dairy products. So the animal feed and the livestock is the pleading not only the forests, but also creating dead zones in in the oceans and contaminating our waters, and also meat and dairy consumption 60% of that also contributes to deforestation, and has more carbon emissions, then cars, planes, ships and a couple of other transport things transportation combined. So it really is doing a lot of damage to our environment. And it's one of the first things that we can do as individuals to to make agency and take change and make change possible.

Maya Acosta  03:48

I think one of the when I came on board as a vegan, I think one of the things that shocked me the most as I start to learn about how the environment is impacted, is that idea of the dead zones, like what is happening. And I didn't know like, for example, when you talked about the runoffs we're talking about like how agriculture, the chemicals that are used in livestock and in planning some of the things that are then fed to the animals, that when the rain comes, that water all of that gets washed into and then that kills the light, the living fish and all the ecosystem that is there. Yeah.

Ebony Monique  04:26

Yeah. And that is another reason why Greenpeace just heavily advocated and campaigned for the passing of a global oceans treaty. So basically, we did win and we got a victory where and we're well on our way to protecting 30% of the oceans, from ensuring that that life can return to the oceans and that we're not practicing harming harmful fishing practices that also deplete our oceans. And then also just being mindful of like you said, the pollution and the runoff and In certain areas, but when we have a global, our global leaders and policymakers actually united together to make change, to ensure our oceans are safe, that does put us on a better trajectory. So folks are waking up and paying attention.

Maya Acosta  05:16

Absolutely. Also, now tell us more about how people can get involved. So they go to the website, Greenpeace, and then what? How can we as regular people get involved? Do you have places where people can volunteer? Talk about this more on social media? What can we do?

Ebony Monique  05:31

Yes, so always we have a website, www dot Greenpeace us that or so you can come and find us there. We have a number of volunteer programs, a number of ways that you can engage. We have our fire drill Fridays that we partner with Jane Fonda on and bring our firefighters out whenever we are calling for an axiom to make change. And just another way, it's always donating to Greenpeace. We are an independent organization. So we don't take money from governments or corporations. We depend on our volunteers and our supporters, you are the ones that make that work possible. So always donating is another way

Maya Acosta  06:12

that's wonderful. Is there anything else that you'd like to tell my listeners and also share your social media?

Ebony Monique  06:18

So my social media is Ebony, EB o n y underscore Monique Moni qu E. That's my IG name and ebony underscore for justice. That's my twitter name so you can find one, but just great to be here. And thanks so much for having me.

Maya Acosta  06:36

Well, thank you and good luck in the panel discussion. So thanks again. You've been listening to the healthy lifestyle solutions podcast with your host Maya Acosta. If you've enjoyed this content, please share with one friend who can benefit. You can also leave us a five star review at rate this podcast.com forward slash H L S. This helps us to spread our message. As always, thank you for being a listener.