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We still need a just transition, and a rapid transition, globally away from fossil fuels and into renewable energy. So I’ll still be doing everything I can to push governments to make those big systemic shifts.
Violet and Brad make some good points in this piece on how a plant based diet can also contribute to change.
When I despair at slow systemic progress, individual action is my antidote.
https://greenagenda.org.au/2025/11/the-elephant-in-the-room/
#ClimateCrisis #vegan #vegetarian
@emmadavidson my fear is that individual action is like a drop of antidote in a poisoned dam.
Being poor, I already have a low carbon footprint not driving, watching every cent I spend, but "individual action" these days has boiled down to chiding others for not eating meat while driving an SUV.
It worries me, because the loss of biodiversity, and the loss of ecosystems, is no longer tied to meat, but coal, gas, and rare earth minerals, now as arable land is being flogged off to resources companies. We're kind of shooting the horse to slow an out of control cart on a downhill slope
@sortius Both things will make a difference. It is true that we cannot turn this around just by changing what we eat. We still have to rapidly transition to renewable energy. I’m not going to stop doing everything I can about that. I just packed a bag to travel to the world’s biggest coal port and physically block the ships next weekend. My choice to eat tofu instead of steak is an “and” not a “but” on climate action (and it *is* my choice, I have agency in this).
@emmadavidson and I respect personal choice. I just worry when we go after food systems when we're about to go into a period of food scarcity, instead of focusing on what the actual problem is.
Food isn't the problem, in my view, and I feel some of the problem with connecting with poor people and climate change is the way we discuss it, especially around food
@sortius food is part of the problem, but the solution isn’t that we all switch to expensive fake meat and nut milk. I’ve been vego since I was a broke-ass student, and grew up in a house where we killed our own meat because it’s cheaper. So yes, there is a problem with the way we discuss food and economic class, but the answer is not to stop talking about the problem. It’s that we need a more inclusive conversation. We still need to change both agriculture and energy use.
@sortius this might be more of interest - if you’re interested in writing about “how” than “why”. It’s about food access post climate disaster, but the audience is people seeking practical advice, and it works across economic and geographic diversity. This is how we did food when I was growing up.
https://rebellion.global/xreadiness/6-food-resilience-sustainable-nutrition/
@emmadavidson I get what you're saying, but these kinds of things fall over once you look at how poor people live, where live, and why many of us are poor. If anything, it's kind of a weird mishmash of advice ripped straight out of the disaster preparedness handbooks, and ableist "climate advice".
My neighbours already grow food, I can't because of my disabilities, either way, it's not arable land. There's a reason we have farms in specific places, and it's not because people like living away from others.
Growing food at home will not solve the climate crisis. If anything you'll need to throw chemical after chemical on the soil to get the soil workable.
We need to secure food systems and attack fossil fuels, rather than chiding poor people over their eating habits
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