World Vegetarian Day is October 1, and it’s an event that definitely means a lot to many of us at Aveda. Many of our corporate employees are vegetarian (or vegan!), and we always offer veg-friendly dishes at our onsite cafeteria, Café Organica. Plus, as you may know, we’re totally obsessed with plants, and that carries over to our diets, too!
Even if you’re not ready to say goodbye to meat or dairy forever, going meatless just one day per week can have a huge impact on our earth and climate. The online publication Inside Climate News shared a study by Science magazine, noting that “the world's food and agricultural systems produce more than a quarter of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, and nearly two-thirds of those emissions are linked to animal products.” According to the Environmental Defense Fund, “If every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetables and grains, for example, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of U.S. roads.”
Switching to a plant-based diet is one major way you can reduce your carbon footprint, and it’s not as difficult as it sounds.
We chatted with Becky Hill, a vegan baker at Fig + Farro restaurant in our home state of Minnesota, about the pros of going meatless at least one day a week, and how the restaurant itself is making a difference with every dish, piece of décor and glass of wine.
“The main mission of the restaurant is to show people that not only does vegetarian and vegan food taste good, but you can drastically reduce your carbon footprint if you go meatless one day a week,” Becky says. “We’ve jumped on the bandwagon of Meatless Mondays; it’s an easy ‘in’ to normalize the concept of going meatless.” The restaurant itself is eco-chic and cozy, with reclaimed and refinished furniture and plenty of beverages on tap; using kegs for things like beer and wine, and even cold press coffee, actually helps save water AND packaging.
