Friends of Animals says diet is the message missing from Earth Day

People have the power to combat the climate crisis one meal at a time. Be vegan.

DARIEN, CT, UNITED STATES, April 17, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- This Earth Day, which will be celebrated April 22, Friends of Animals is calling on all Americans to take the most immediate, important climate action: stop eating animals.

“How can you NOT talk about diet on Earth Day?” said Priscilla Feral, president of FoA. “People have the power to combat the climate crisis one meal at a time. What are you waiting for? You can start with dinner tonight. Be Vegan.”

While “Our Power Our Planet” is the Earth Day theme this year, with an emphasis on tripling of renewable energy by 2030—it doesn’t address the alarming trend that meat consumption is still on the rise despite Americans knowing that animal agriculture is fueling the climate crisis. Not to mention water and wildlife are also caught in the meat industry’s path of destruction.

According to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, the average American is now consuming more than 224 pounds of meat per year, far more than people in any other country.

In 2025, no one should be sticking their head in the sand about cattle’s colossal role in the climate crisis. Their digestive process produces the potent planet warming gas methane; their manure produces both methane and nitrous oxide. Not to mention expansion of pasture for cattle (and sheep) grazing results in conversion of forest and grassland, which causes the emission of carbon dioxide. We must reduce carbon emissions because the more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the warmer the earth becomes.

The U.S.’s 92 million cattle generate 4% of the country’s total greenhouse gases and account for 40% of all agricultural emissions. In 2023, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reported that livestock produce 11.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Peer-reviewed studies have put the figure higher, at up to 19.6% of emissions.

Whether the meat industry’s carbon footprint is on the lower or upper end of this range, quitting the meat and dairy industry is more important than ever.

“As individuals we have to offset what the current Administration is doing,” Feral said. “Trump is assaulting climate action and trying to pollute the earth. That can make us sick, and his allies are working to keep people silent and distracted. But we can push back on what we call food now; we don’t have to wait for the world to change.

“I love the personal autonomy available to people in their daily lives. Each one of us possesses the ability to reclaim our power—beginning with breakfast, lunch and dinner. That’s the message that’s missing from Earth Day.”

Friends of Animals, an international animal protection organization founded in New York in 1957, advocates for the rights of animals, free-living and domestic around the world. www.friendsofanimals.org

Priscilla Feral
Friend of Animals
+1 203-656-1522 ext. 2120
feral@friendsofanimals.org
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