By Priscilla Feral
Yet the reality is we have a profoundly troubling administration that caters to polluters and fossil fuel companies that plunder wilderness and assault federal climate action work.
In the fall, the administration moved again to open the entire 1.56 million acres of the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas leasing, despite the fact that no companies were interested and there were no bids during the last auction in January 2025. Rest assured, Friends of Animals has fought to preserve the Arctic Refuge for a quarter century and will continue. In truth, “A clean energy revolution and climate stabilization are achievable with current technology,” scientist Michael Mann writes. “All we require are policies to incentivize the needed shift.”
Until then, what’s promising is no matter why one chooses a plant-based vegan diet—to cut greenhouse gas emissions; conserve water and land; prevent and reverse chronic disease; prevent marine life destruction; or stop systematic animal abuse—the government cannot repress our freedom of choice when it comes to what we eat.
That’s empowering and fills us with determination. And so does this revelation: if U.S. residents were all vegan and consumed plants directly, we would reduce the amount of land used for agriculture by 75%. Plus, switching to a healthful, whole-food vegan diet is a nutritionally sound, and a scientifically proven way to prevent and reverse lifestyle illnesses.
Being vegan reorders the universe. It also means the world to animals who need not be bred into existence to be called livestock, or our food. Ironically, while Americans seem obsessed with weight loss and protein consumption—don’t worry you’ll get enough with a vegan diet—we’re the sickest culture on earth. The leading cause of death in the U.S. is heart disease. Also, by 2030, some studies project that approximately half of U.S. residents will have prediabetes—a precursor to type 2 diabetes. That means diets rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats, such as avocados, seeds, and nuts, should be staples in your diet to ensure a healthy way of living.
April 22 is Earth Day, a time when environmental groups routinely talk about reducing carbon emissions as a key to climate action, yet waffle about a truth that FoA knows should be center stage: one’s diet. At last year’s Earth Day Festival in Connecticut, Emmy-winning science correspondent and author David Pogue discussed the environmental costs of dietary choices. “Eating beef is the number one greatest emissions act that you take because cows burp and fart up to 12 gallons of methane an hour,” he said.
In the U.S., 33 million cows are slaughtered each year, and animal farming emits at least 18% of atmosphere’s methane, a greenhouse gas that traps radiation and has a warming effect 86 times stronger than carbon dioxide over 20 years.
This year, mark Earth Day by opting out of consuming animals. Make it a call to respect animals, take back our planet, and prevent climate disasters.
Speaking of possibilities, you can make every day Earth Day in other ways too. Make your yard a safe haven for wildlife by providing clean sources of water, planting native plants and shrubs, and not using toxic herbicides and pesticides on lawns and vegetation or rodenticides around dwellings. Flowers such as dandelions that grow in poison-free yards are early food sources for pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, and are a food that insects need. In turn, insects are food that most birds and other species require for their survival.
Priscilla Feral is president of Friends of Animals.