To encourage the role of youth in preserving our planet earth, we feature a guest blog post by MARIA ALEXANDRA ISKANDAR. Ale who lives in Bandung, Indonesia just finished high school. She loves food with concerns for our so-called-home planet earth.

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Have you ever thought of changing the world? Too cliché? Well, have you ever thought of saving the environment? Too much work? Okay then, but I am pretty sure all of you or maybe even all of us must have thought, at least once, about what are we going to eat for our next meal. Do you want steak or sandwich or maybe just salad? But does it ever cross your mind that, even by just a single act of eating, we can change the whole world?

We eat almost everyday. I myself would say I am a big fan of food. Maybe we skip some meals when we are on a diet or whatsoever. But we can’t deny that eating is an essential part of our life. Try to skip meals for a whole month and you’ll eventually die out of starvation. So eating is important, not only the content of what we eat but also how we eat and how our foods come to our plates. Try to contemplate your next meal but don’t drool. You see your favorite food, is it nice? Where do you get it? The local market? Imported products? Is your meal freshly prepared? Or is it fast-service food?

 Image: Szefei/123rf.com

We realize then that our food might not be so nutritious after all or healthy at the same time. In this global era people tend to get busier and busier every day and have less time even for eating. So we tend to look for fast food restaurants instead of preparing our own meals. And we know that fast food restaurants don’t serve what we consider as healthy and ecologically friendly food.

Imagine that in one year there are approximately 50 billion burgers eaten by Americans.  That means there are also 50 billion wrappers wastes created each year. And well, 50 billion junks goes into the body of American people. "A new study from US-based food testing company Clear Labs has discovered, from a sample of 258 burgers, two cases of meat in vegetarian products, three burgers with rat DNA and one case of human DNA" (Independent). That doesn’t sound so good. We wouldn’t want to eat that would we?

Another reason why we shouldn’t eat meat, poultry, fish, etc. is that unconsciously we consume anger out of them. The cows or chickens that we eat mostly come from large-scale modern farms where in this farm they are not treated well. The farms created shorter day and night using lamp in order for the chicken to produce more egg in shorter time. The chickens are kept in small cages where they don’t even have space to sit so they have to stand all the time. Imagine the stress and anger in those animals treated like that. So they express this feeling of anger by hurting and fighting other chickens or maybe cows. So farmers cut their beak and horns so they can’t hurt each other. Imagine the anger growing in them and we eat those anger. So be aware.

“Be careful what you eat. If you eat anger, you will become and express anger. If you eat despair, you will express despair. If you eat frustration, you will express frustration” (“We Are What We Eat,” from Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames, by Thich Nhat Hanh).

And you say to yourself: “Well, I don’t eat that much junk food, what will be the effect if I stop eating burger while others still eat those things? Let’s say you only eat 10 burgers every year, but “the water it takes to produce 10 burgers is the same amount of water you use to shower for a year” (Triple Pundit). It means you use twice the amount of water a year and that’s a lot of water. Hence, cutting down your intake on burgers somehow will help save our so-called home, the Earth. Imagine that the water needed to make 10 burgers can be used to water crops and plants or even given to people that are facing drought.

 Image: #Bringwater4life

It’s not only burgers. I’m talking about meat in general. There are a lot of reasons why we should not eat meat or poultry anymore. One of the reasons is animal agriculture cause 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s more than cars, trucks, trains, airplanes and all other vehicle transportation put together. Also you may say that a day you become vegan won’t mean much, but it turns out that “everyday you eat vegan meals, you save 1100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 square feet of forested land, 20 pounds of CO2 equivalent emissions and one animal’s life” (Triple Pundit). Now that’s a lot of things you save just by changing your one act of eating.

“As a population, if a large number of people make even small moves to eat less meat and more plant based foods, the livestock industry will shrink. Overtime, farmers will find other crops to support their livelihoods. Through such collective awakening we can make a difference in our world” (Thich Nhat Hanh).

Eating to save the world

We are all facing the same problem to save our home. Eventually the food crisis will hit our family if we don’t take action. But how do I take action? I’m just me, how am I supposed to help save the world? You have to realize that whatever you do now can impact a lot of things in the future.

Lynne Twist, one of the founder of The Pachamama Alliance said that everyone has his or her own role to play. It is not a big role or a small role; it is just your role. You just have to do your best in playing your role. And when you play your role then your life will have a meaning that you dream of.

 Image: techyyouth.com

So it is up to us, do we want to save, well .... , to save ourselves? If yes then the power is within you, your will is your power. Maybe just maybe this is your role. Yes you! Maybe just having a slight change in your eating habit you can then help change the world and well probably your weight too. May the universe be with you.

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Text: Maria Alexandra Iskandar. Images: Omar Niode Foundation, unless otherwise noted