Care for both your homes – your body and the Earth
Self-care = Earth-care. Caring for yourself and caring for the Earth are not mutually exclusive. We live in an age where climate change is a reality, the effects of which are visible daily across the globe. While the earth does follow its own cycles of heating and cooling, the accelerated heating we are now experiencing is a direct result of human actions.
Though much of the world is focused on transitioning away from fossil fuels as a way to fight climate change, there is another, often-overlooked climate change culprit: animal agriculture and its environmental impact. Animal agriculture is the second largest contributor to human-made greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions after fossil fuels and is a leading cause of deforestation, water and air pollution and biodiversity loss.
We need to preserve and restore forests, which soak up carbon from the air, and peatlands, which release carbon if dug up. Cattle raised on pastures created by clearing woodland are particularly emission-intensive. This practice often comes with large-scale deforestation, as seen in Brazil and Colombia. Cows also produce large amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, as they digest their food.
Animal protein is not only bad for our planet. Scientists have linked red and processed meat to a range of diseases, and the World Health Organization has classed them as a cause of cancer. Researchers concluded that a change in protein source or eating healthy plant-based foods such as vegetables or whole grains can improve longevity.
But what about dairy? There are two aspects of dairy that are inflammatory in large portions of the population – lactose which is the sugar in dairy and casein which is a dairy protein. Lactose is most often associated with IBS whereas casein has a far more detrimental effect, being linked to chronic immune response leading to everything from the onset of type 1 diabetes to colon cancer.
At Phyto Pro we not only believe in providing a clean, sustainable plant protein alternative that is good for your body, it’s also good for the Earth. Choosing our cleanly-farmed, water-extracted pea protein over industrially-farmed and chemically-processed whey and other plant-based alternatives means you reduce the impact of your food choices on your body and the health of the planet… Self-care = Earth-care. We also believe that we can become a carbon-neutral source of protein by planting trees with organisations such as Green Pop. Thus far we have planted over 200 trees and we will soon be auditing our full value chain in an effort to become fully carbon-neutral.