Vegetarians, Vegans and the Carbon Footprint: An Increased Environmental Consciousness among the Youths

In recent years, country has seen a rise in new trend in adopting plant-based diets which could be due to a variety of reasons- environmental consciousness, affection for animals, social justice or a bid to end world hunger for materialist society and so on and so forth. Whatever be the reasons, all of them have led to one definite conclusion- a decrease in the carbon footprint generated by an individual. To know the individual's preferred diet, reasons for adopting and to educate the youth of informed advantages of adopting such dietary habits, a cross-sectional study was done through an online survey among various youth. It was observed that a growing consciousness has led them to adoptbetter health choices and environment-friendly decisions, despite many of them selecting reason for eating meat or dairy products as a “personal taste”. They also agreed that they would be more than happy, if made aware to switch over to a diet which would have less impact on the environment. This article deals with an increased consciousness of adopting healthier, more beneficial, and more environmentally viable food habits among the younger population. To establish this fact, a survey was conducted in Delhi/NCR region using Google forms amid the lockdown period of Covid-19 pandemic. Results show that the concerted efforts of the individuals towards achieving this task may enable them to reduce global carbon footprints by 29-70%. Through this study, efforts have also been made to educate young individuals about these healthy and less polluting lifestyle practices which may help reduce their individual contribution to the global environmental crisis.