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On June 22, thousands took to the streets of London to take part in the Restore Nature Now march, fronted by presenter and activist Chris Packham and Oscar-winning actor Emma Thompson.
Read more: Heather Mills Tells UN Officials To ‘Eat Vegan’ If They Care About The Planet
Joining the pair at the front of the march was clean energy entrepreneur Dale Vince. The march aimed to raise awareness not only of the climate crisis, but also the huge loss of wildlife and natural habitats in the UK. Vince, one of the speakers at the end of the march, took the opportunity to tell the crowd about the direct links between nature destruction in the UK and the animal agriculture industry.
Vince is the owner of green energy company Ecotricity and Forest Green Rovers FC, said to be the world’s first carbon-neutral and fully vegan football club. With one in six species in Britain facing the risk of extinction, and the country facing ecological disasters such as sewage being poured into rivers and the sea, Vince took the podium to address what he called “the cow in the room.”
The cow in the room
Posting a video of his speech to his LinkedIn profile, Vince said “The blind spot of many who care about climate, nature, and the environment is our diet. Nature is in decline not because of urban development, the climate crisis, or the fossil fuel industry, but because of what we choose to eat.”
Read More: New Report Reveals ‘Desperate State’ Of UK Rivers
“Farmland takes up 75% of our country,” he said in the speech. “And we use it overwhelmingly to feed animals to feed ourselves. And that is such an inefficient system.“
“A cow is the worst example,” he continued. “We put 10 times more protein into a cow than we get back out. A chicken gives us half back what we put in. The decline of nature is about taking land from nature for farming for an inefficient food system. And the great news is if we all stop eating animals today, tomorrow, whenever, in our country, we can free up 75 percent of that farmland, and that’s 75 percent of 75 percent. That’s half of our entire country that we can give back to nature.”
Vince expressed that he was worried about discussing something people at the march “didn’t want to hear,” but people in the crowd could be heard chanting “Go vegan” in response.
An empowering message
Vince ended his speech by emphasizing that this is a change people can make without relying on corporations or governments. “The great news is it’s in our power, the food we all choose every day. We can choose to chew differently. We don’t have to wait for governments. We don’t have to wait for big corporations. If we stop buying that stuff (meat, dairy, eggs, etc), they stop making it and for me, that’s an empowering message.”
Vince signed off with a joke saying: “Remember, if you leave here today and get a Big Mac, the sparrow gets it.”
Read More: WWF Warns Too Much UK Land Is Used To Grow Livestock Feed
