Take Action: "Save Water, Eat Plants!" California Citizens' Action Campaign
Every time we turn on the news, we hear about the devastating effects of the drought. The scarcity of fresh water affects us not only here in California, but around the world. According to NASA scientists, the world is running out of water. We hear about ways to reduce personal water use, such as no longer watering our lawns, taking shorter showers and turning off the tap while we brush our teeth. However, personal water use accounts for only 4% of California's water footprint, while meat and dairy account for a staggering 47% (Pacific Institute)!
Since 70-90% of global freshwater use is for agriculture, water scientists agree that adopting a plant-based diet is the only way to save massive amounts of water, and conserving household use alone will not make a big enough dent.
We are saddened that animal agriculture, the largest contributor to increasing water scarcity in California and worldwide, has been almost entirely left out of the conversation, especially when there is an easy way to reduce water consumption by half, without sacrifice. That solution is to shift away from livestock products and adopt a delicious plant-based (vegan) diet, which saves 600 gallons of water a day (National Geographic). Yet with each day that goes by, astounding amounts of precious freshwater that cannot be recharged in the short term are being pumped from aquifers – mostly to grow animal feed.
We are asking for your help in bringing this conversation to the forefront. We feel the urgency of this drought and have together a citizen’s action campaign called “Save Water, Eat Plants!,” which launched September 1st. We are contacting every vegan, vegetarian, water conservation, and environmental group in California and asking them to join us too.
Here are several ways you can help get the conversation started so it’s heard by all:
1. LEARN THE FACTS
Learn more about the connection between modern animal-based diets and increasing water scarcity on our website and social media pages, and share the info with others.
2. DO RESTAURANT OUTREACH
Go to restaurants and share with them what you’ve learned. Discuss the issues (politely) with restaurant owners or managers and ask them to offer healthy vegan options as part of the “Save Water, Eat Plants!” campaign and to place signs in their windows (as seen below). These informative signs, which include a UNESCO info source, alert customers that these establishments care about California’s drought crisis and that they are taking action by offering plant-based options, which use only half the water of animal-based products.
Get the restaurant sign here.
Get the letter to restaurants here.
Get tips for approaching restaurants here.
Be sure to show them all the eateries proudly displaying our sign!:
3. LEAFLETING
Spreading this urgent message by leafleting is a quick and easy way to reach many people. Just keep a box of leaflets in your car and carry some in your bag and you will always be ready to leaflet wherever, whenever and to whomever you can.
Busy, populated venues like street fairs, festivals, concerts, and parades offer excellent opportunities to pass out hundreds/thousands of brochures in a very short time. Supermarkets, farmers’ markets, department stores, and malls are great for outreach during busy times. Recreational areas like the parks or the beach are perfect places to hand out literature. Don’t forget to give them to employees at stores and other places you patronize and to put some in your work lunchroom or on a reception room table (perhaps along with a well-placed tray of vegan muffins, bagels and cream cheese, or vegan sandwiches, to help clear up common misconceptions that vegan food is somehow subpar or not tasty!).
Quote: "I just learned more about this issue in three minutes of reading this leaflet than I have in my whole life!" -3rd grade teacher
Get our thoroughly-sourced factual leaflets here.
4. SIGNS
Place a Truth or Drought "Save Water, Eat Plants!" signs in your yard or a magnet on your car! These signs, which use National Geographic's conservative figures, and are popping up all over the place, provoking the conversations people so urgently need to be having. Even Grammy-nominated artist Moby posted one of our signs he saw in LA on his social media!
Get lawn signs and car magnets here.
5. WRITE
Ask community members to write to or email Governor Brown and their state and national representatives asking them to incentivize animal-based agriculture farmers to switch to farming organic whole plant foods. Let them know that there is an increasing demand for healthy plant-based (vegan) foods and that citizens no longer want to support products that support disease, cruelty, and environmental degradation.
Download our letter template here.
Mailing address included on letter, or email him through this form.
6. SIGN THE PETITION
Sign our petition asking California's statewide water-saving campaign, Save Our Water, to give Californian the #1 water-saving tip already! They acknowledged on camera in the film Cowspiracy that animal agriculture has the largest water footprint yet they don't talk about it "because of the way that government is set up here." (They are a government-funded agency.)
Sign the petition here.
7. WATCH
If you’re in the Sacramento area, Emily Honeycutt, Director of the Save Water, Eat Plants! Campaign will be appearing on local TV shows and other news outlets to raise awareness and promote the campaign. Let people know so they can tune in and find out even more information about the campaign and the ever-growing movement away from livestock products.
8. TELL THE MEDIA
Write to your local media outlets to tell them about the "Save Water, Eat Plants" signs that are popping up all over town, and let them know why they should report on this issue and beat others to the REAL story on the drought and water scarcity! Our website and leaflets contain many astounding facts from reputable, mainstream sources you can share with them. The campaign press release can be found here.
9. BECOME A ToD AMBASSADOR
Write to truthordrought@gmail.com if you'd like to arrange a Meetup in your community to get more people on board with the campaign and help with outreach. If you can't donate time, please donate funds for our outreach materials, which will soon include a "Save Water, Eat Plants" billboard!
By working together, we can make a difference. If everyone who reads this post or hears about the campaign puts up a sign in their yard or window or on their car, writes to their governor and congressional representatives, and gets one restaurant to add one plant-based option along with putting up the Truth or Drought window sign, we will start to shift consumer demand and help enact impactful water-saving measures and legislation.
Share this article on your Facebook page and your other social media pages to encourage others to #SaveWaterEatPlants! Be sure to tag us and use the hashtag so we'll see it!