Welcome to Climate Action Lewisham ‘Green Your Eats 2022’. If you joined us last year, welcome back!
Eating meat and animal products in such great amounts is one of the leading causes of climate change at the moment so reducing the amount of meat and dairy we eat is one of the best things we can do to lessen the amount of CO2 going into the atmosphere. We don’t need to give it up totally (although that would be great) but simply eating mostly vegan foods, and mostly local foods, is good enough to make a difference on an individual level. About 25% of all carbon emissions come from our food, which, considering the planet’s population, isn’t surprising.
We support Veganuary, but there is also the term ‘Climatarian’. See more about Climatarianism in the links below. Essentially it’s about eating foods with a low carbon footprint: local and seasonal, not necessarily vegan, but largely low in meat and animal products.
For Climate Action Lewisham we have three different areas that you can get involved in ‘Green Your Eats 2022’.
Cook-a-longs
You can join one of our Sunday cookalongs and learn how to make a delicious vegan dish from a vegan chef. The ingredients and recipes are published beforehand so if you want you can cook along. Otherwise, the recordings are published on our website after the event.
Click on the eventbrite links for more details and to sign up!
2nd January 5-6.30pm
Vegan Mac’n’Cheese with Elia Rulli and Clive Bradley
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/green-your-eats-vegan-mac-n-cheese-registration-229752886067
9th January 5-6.30pm
Plant-based eating and Community Growing with CocoCollective.
16th January 5-6.30pm
Living Foods, Detox and Nutrition with Theresa Webb
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/living-foods-detox-and-nutrition-registration-235263317917
23rd January 5-6.30pm
Soy, Ginger and Pear-braised Tofu with Tomasina Stacey
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/green-your-eats-soy-and-ginger-tofu-tickets-248771059937?aff=eand
30th January 5-6.30pm
Simple, plant-based Japanese cooking with Sonia Heaton
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/simple-plant-based-japanese-cooking-tickets-236602984897?aff=eand
Join us on WhatsApp!
Join us on in our dedicated #GreenYourEats WhatsApp group – we will be doing a week of plant-based eating from Monday 3rd to Sunday 9th January. We’ll be posting photos of our meals, sharing recipes and resources, and generally encouraging each other to keep going! To join, email us at vegan@climateactionlewisham.org or sign up here.
Last year, this group had great success. As one participant told us:
“This month has definitely shown me how it’s not that difficult to be vegan and has opened my eyes up a lot more to becoming much more plant-based and possibly fully vegan in the near future. I’ve found I’ve got more energy and been happier… and found it really, really helpful and motivating being part of this group.”
Restaurant Competition
Later in 2022 we will hold a restaurant competition, and ask you to nominate or vote for your favourite Lewisham food outlet that sells particularly good vegan food.
Lewisham Vegans presentation
On 12th December 2021, David Gore of Lewisham Vegans organised a powerful presentation for CAL, explaining why environmentalists should be embracing veganism. You can watch the presentation here.
Links
See below for some good links on vegan and Climatarian eating:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/20/style/what-is-climatarian.html
Veganuary 2022: https://veganuary.com/
Here’s the Guardian on alternatives to the avocado: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/nov/01/end-of-the-avocado-why-chefs-ditching-the-Here-fruit
Instagram accounts to follow:
https://www.instagram.com/climatariankitchen/
Lewisham Vegans
https://www.facebook.com/LewishamVegans/
#GreenYourEats #SavethePlanet #NomNomNom
