I have no vision of how the earth came to heal. The best I can do is to relate how I came to eat for climate health, and what I have learned since then. Part of my answer is that just as I came upon this path, I know I am part of a larger movement that is growing towards healing the earth.
I have cared passionately about the earth since the 1980s, when I became more aware of pollution at different levels. I tailored my lifestyle as well as I could, taking public transportation, simply not going out if not really necessary, eating more carefully, etc. I had been vegetarian before I knew there was such a word, beginning in 1968. But for health reasons, I was not able to sustain it for more than a few years at a time. I would do it for as long as I could, then painfully, revert for a while. Nevertheless, much of my adult life I have been vegetarian. I avoided leather products. However, I am a knitter and a spinner, and I try to buy wool that I feel was raised by people who care deeply for their sheep. I have read and seen enough to know that there are many people who raise sheep who are sensitive to their needs, unlike some huge farms around the world. These people make a very modest living, and are not in it for the money. The animals are not exploited, but are a loving part of their lives. These animals would not have tasted life if it were not for this industry; they generally live a good life, protected and cared for. These days more and more shepherds plan their farms for sustainability; the animals are part of the cycle, grazing on rotated pastures, eating weeds that would otherwise be an ecological problem; even their hoof pressure on the ground works into the dynamic equation.
I am relatively new to eating plant-based. (I have been mostly whole food for fifty years.) First, I had always needed some animal protein, or I would get lightheaded and could fall or faint. Furthermore, the word “Vegan” had negative connotations for me. It was associated with dogmatism, protests, and with the sense that I would be required to act in ways that I did not like.
I began to eat whole food plant-based after some weeks in Sailesh’s Bhagavad-Gita course, in the fall of 2023. For a while I was not able to stay completely plant-based, for physical reasons, but I find now that I may be easing into it.
Since beginning to eat plant-based, I gradually became curious about plant-based versions of various foods. I don’t recall what I was looking into, but I came upon a website by a young woman named Sam, from Canada. Her name is Sam(antha) Turnbill; her website is at https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/about/. Her story, rather than her recipes, were what drew me. She shared how she (abruptly) became vegan, being raised in a family of hunters and meat-eaters. She sited the two films that strongly affected her, Forks of Knives, and Vegucated. I watched them, and learned.
The title graphics of Forks Over Knives did not look promising, and did not prepare me for the serious, amazing research and people we meet in this film. It opened a world to me.
As I watched it , I looked up online accounts of Dr. Colin Campbell and Dr. Cauldwell Esselystyn, then Dr. John McDougall, and from Vegucated, Dr. Joel Fuhrman. What impressed me more than the research, was that each of these people still are vital and look wonderful after many decades of living whole foods plant-based; they range in age from mid-70s to 89 and 90. And their wives also looked wonderful. I saw an interview with Ann Esselstyn, when she was 87 (last year). She said that people in her immediate family died young from cancer (and maybe heart disease). She said that she had bad genes, but seemed to base that only on experience; her genes might, in fact, be great. Regardless, she is vital and lovely at 87; that is good enough for me.
There is a one-to-one correlation between each person eating whole foods plant-based – AND no oil and for some, no seeds and nuts – for much of their adult life, and being healthy and vital in later years. (I’ll have what they’re having.) While the sampling is miniscule, the success rate is one-to-one; each person who ate well is healthy and vital. I find that compelling.
All this relates to the original question, in that while watching these various videos and interview and reading vegan blogs, I became aware of how this vegan world has grown in the last ten, twenty years.
This gives me hope that the time has come for a major shift.
My husband, rest his soul, was from Turkey. I was recently talking with our niece who lives in Eastern Turkey, a mostly rural land. She told me that her two sons, in their twenties, studying in the more metropolitan Western Turkey, are both vegan! She became a vegetarian a few years ago, and she says she is planning to be vegan soon. This is more food for hope.
As I was preparing a meal today for a Day Center (Soup Kitchen), feeling a bit stressed about time, I began to sing to calm myself (I never did this before for cooking, and only rarely just sing). I sang the wonderful canon Dona Nobis Pacem. Then I remembered the movie from long ago, Like Water for Chocolate, a film from Mexico, in which the heroine, Tita, is a magical cook. Her food is special not only in taste, but her feelings are in her food, and people who eat her food take on her feelings.
I will try to sing songs for good, and for inner peace, as I prepare meals for the Day Center, and for myself. Maybe it will contribute to the healing.
Thank you for opening this door for us to consider the question. I would not have dreamed of dealing with this a few weeks ago. Be well.