Our Study Action was approved by the UUSM Board in June 2025. As a congregation committed to compassion, justice, and respect for the interconnected web of life, the UUSM Animal Ministry proposed that we commit to buying only plant-based or vegetarian food at church events with a new policy for the next year to see if this is an action of compassion we can maintain in the future. When organizing a potluck or other events for which people bring food, we would ask for 90% plant-based/vegetarian, minimal meat/eggs/dairy (since those do the most harm to the Planet).
Since 2010, reports from the United Nations Environment Programme have been trying to address this, but people are still not listening or taking measures to fix this huge problem. We’re still killing our planet. We need to do better, and this is a way we can with our food choices. We know these reports are large and there’s a lot to go through. Here are the links and some highlights.
Reports from: United Nations Environment Programme – www.unep.org
Study Title: Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production (started in 2010 and has been amended over time) – 112 pages (ATTACHED: Pg 74 of 112 has a great infographic below)
Study Title: Bend the Trend – Pathways to a Liveable Planet as Resource Sse Spikes (2024) 181 pages
Study Title: Food Systems and Natural Resources – 184 pages
Main points from these studies:
- From a life-cycle analysis, animal agriculture is one of the most polluting industries on the planet. It produces more direct emissions than all transportation combined (planes, trains, and automobiles (see above, Figure 5.7). It consumes over 80% of the land used by humans. If all fossil fuels vanished immediately, just from the emissions of animal agriculture, it would be impossible for us to meet the Paris Climate Accords to prevent a 1.5°C increase in warming temperature.
- Consuming animals and dairy is not only unsustainable, it’s also the cruelest. Over 80-100 billion animals per year are raised for human consumption This does not include seafood: 78 – 171 billion sea animals are killed for food every year, and 1 million animals are caught as bycatch when trying to catch seafood for humans to consume. While we’re on this subject, but it wasn’t in this study, here are a few facts about the dairy industry numbers not included here. The dairy industry kills 3.3 million male calves within days of their birth because they won’t be producing milk! Over 10 million female calves are killed annually as a byproduct of the dairy industry.
- 30% of the Earth’s entire land surface is taken up by animals raised for slaughter. Think about all the plants we could grow to feed all the humans on the planet instead of all the animals that we’re feeding to later slaughter and eat the nutrients they ate.
We also recommend an excellent documentary named Cowspiracy, with other great facts and data supporting much of what is covered in these reports. Available on Netflix, or you can rent through their website www.cowspiracy.com.
The Animal Ministry and Green Living/Climate Action Committee will partner to show an eye-opening, environmentally-driven documentary for members and guests to view on January 11, 2026, so stay tuned. There will be yummy plant-based food available while you watch! Here’s a sneak peek of the film: view trailer here.
*Part 1 of 3 of this article is located at: UUSM Board Approves Study/Action for Possible New Food Policy
*Part 2 of 3 of this article is located at: UUSM Board Approves Study/Action for Possible New Food Policy
More educational information will be coming over the next year to aid in this study/action that is taking place through June 2026. We’d like to hear your thoughts. Please send a message with your questions, comments, or concerns. animalministryoutreach@uusm.org.
