Protecting All Animal-People: Interview with Stephanie Maw (vegan), Humane Society International, Part 2 of 2

On today’s program we continue our discussion with Stephanie Maw, Public Affairs and Campaigns Officer at Humane Society International (HSI), a global animal-people welfare organization.

Stephanie discusses how raising livestock for meat consumption is causing many of the problems facing Earth today. “If you look at the numbers and the science, we know it's the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions globally, as much as all forms of transportation worldwide combined. And it's not just greenhouse gas emissions that are a problem with animal agriculture.

It's also the single largest human-made user of land. And again, we've got the scientific agreement there that one really important way is to shift diets away from meat and dairy products. And the UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have shown that if we reduced our consumption of animal products and ate more plant-based products instead, that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20%. So, it's a really huge opportunity there for leaders to really make sure we can tackle the climate and nature crises that we're facing.”

“There's growing public demand for governments to step up to the plate and take the lead. A study came out by D-MOSS, and it looked at what are the public's thoughts on what policy actions the UK government should prioritise. And actually, one of the top three, with 93% of respondents, was, ‘We want to see strong government campaign and policy action on reducing meat and dairy consumption.’ So, that should be hugely encouraging to our politicians in the UK. There's that backing from the public. They want to see leadership from government on this.”

“There was a survey by Harris Interactive. And that showed that 25% of people in the UK are now shifting away from animal-based foods and trying out plant-based foods. So that's great. And I think a particularly encouraging figure is to see that 20% of millennials now identify as vegan or vegetarian.”

Our most courageous Supreme Master Ching Hai often reminds us that widespread adoption of the vegan lifestyle is the only way to save our Earth. “If the government doesn’t want people to eat meat anymore, then first they have to stop all the slaughterhouses, all the livestock industry. Close them all down. Give these business owners some subsidies so that they can turn that into another kind of farming. Because they say that’s an animal-people farm, so they can turn that into a vegetable farm and fruit farm.”