Translator: Michele Gianella Reviewer: Nicoletta Pedrana
When I was a child,
my grandparents used to take me and my sister
to spend the summer in the mountains.
We would take long walks along these paths,
backpacks on our shoulders,
sandwiches and flasks in.
Our grandmother used to teach us all the names of trees and flowers;
She taught us to distinguish the footprints
of all the animals that populated those forests.
These walks are, still today,
among the finest memories of my childhood.
We often went near a refuge called Aviolo, in the Adamello group;
and a huge glacier was above this refuge.
A glacier that, today, is slightly more than half
the size it used to be in my childhood.
The melting of the glaciers
is one of the many symptoms of climate change,
one of those manifestations
I could witness firsthand;
but there are, of course, plenty of other ones,
such as desertification,
extreme weather phenomena,
oceans' acidification and warming.
In short, climate change is there, it's a given;
and it's the biggest threat
we're going to face as a society, over the next few years.
And yet, in a sense, it's hard to feel the fear of that:
it seems to us something distant, imperceptible,
faraway in both time and space.
While it actually is
something really, really dangerous for us.
It also seems to us,
we are powerless, unable to make a difference.
And we have this sense of helplessness, like:
what Carlotta, me -
if glaciers melt and the sea acidifies,
What is my fault? What can I do about it?
We think we're powerless.
But it shouldn't be that way,
because there's a lot of things that we can do
to positively affect the environment arounds us.
We've been taught this since we were children:
like, for example, telling us
that we have to turn off the tap when we brush our teeth,
that we have to separate the garbage,
that we must try to use less plastic,
or ride bicycles over cars.
But there is an action with an impact
greater than all these actions combined,
that could really change the world in the next few years,
and dramatically reduce global emissions,
if massively implemented.
What I'm talking about is,
stop eating animal products, and start eating plant products.
But how could eating plants have an impact on the environment?
How could my daily food choices
have an impact
on something as large as the planet and its ecosystems?
Let me explain.
First of all, by going plant-based
one of the many benefits is an incredible water saving.
Making a hamburger, for example, takes on average 1,500 liters of water;
while producing the same amount of protein,
but in the form of vegetables,
only takes 25 liters of water.
How come?
A cow, if you think about it,
has to eat every day more or less 40 kilos of hay,
must drink 80 liters of water every day;
the crops it eats must be grown, irrigated, farmed;
the barn must be cleaned, and so the farm, etc. etc;
therefore, the "water bill" behind a piece of meat
gets more and more expensive.
And think about this gap
not just in one meal, as in this example,
but potentially one or even two meals a day,
for a lifetime.
How can we have so much space
to grow all the food we need,
not only for us humans
but also for all the animals all over the world?
Well, actually we don't have that much space:
we have already seen this year, for example, with the Amazon,
that when there is no space for agriculture
deforestation is used
to find new spaces to cultivate.
This is a problem, from our point of view,
because we need trees, we need them.
Trees do two things fundamental to us,
they even do them for free;
but we throw them down.
They absorb CO2 - which is something vital,
especially in the situation we're living in -
and release oxygen.
So we should, logically,
be here planting new forests, instead of cutting them down.
Instead, we don't.
Were we all be going plant-based,
we could safely reforest all those areas
that are currently farmed to grow food for animals,
with an incredible world-changing effect.
Besides being a cause of water waste, resources waste
and deforestation, as we have seen,
the animal products industry
is also a very impactful industry in terms of pollution:
and I'm not just talking about, as they say sometimes,
cows' intestinal gas -
which is methane, however, and it's a dangerous gas.
I'm specifically referring
to the field of production and distribution
of the ingredients in the animal products themselves.
And here, of course, we have to consider a very, very important fact:
the animal products' industry
pollutes more
than all the transport industries combined.
So cars, trucks, ships, planes.
Think about how much impact that has.
So far I've only talked about the consequences for climate,
but that was only one of the three main reasons
that pushed me to switch to a plant-based diet.
The other two reasons are animals and health,
And now I'll tell you about those as well.
The animal products industry
is inevitably an industry of suffering.
Every year we give birth to,
breed - often in miserable conditions - and kill
70 billion land animals,
Numbers for sea animals are even more impressive:
every year we catch two trillion fish from the sea:
Do you know what two trillion are?
2,000 billions, a mindboggling number.
And if I think that these animals
are all unique individuals, with their own character,
exactly like my beloved dog,
I can't bear it, and I won't.
Also, a little note about health:
those who follow a diet rich in vegetables,
and low in animal products,
statistically runs much less risk
of running into cardiovascular disease, diabetes and all types of cancer.
And that's quite something.
I mean, long story short,
there's no smarter choice, for all of us,
than start eating vegetables.
You must be thinking:
Yeah, okay, this dude on the stage may even be right.
But this is so lame, this is such a pain!
I won't give up on Sunday BBQ,
my grandmother's delicious lasagna,
my beloved meatballs with sauce.
And so, now I've decided to play a game with you.
I'll show you some pictures:
you only have to raise your hand
when you see something that you like, that you would happily eat.
Okay? Okay.
First photo.
Okay. Good.
Good, very good.
Okay. Fine, great.
Last picture.
Good, good.
Maybe you already figured it out,
but the dishes you have seen are all completely vegetable,
doable in less than 30 minutes with a really easy process.
If I amazed you,
it's because generally there is a preconception on vegetable nutrition -
I mean, vegan food -
based on many fears and stereotypes.
Sadly, people think that plant eaters are sad, a bit depressed people,
who always eats the same things, a salad and four unseasoned vegetables;
and that maybe then you will incur in life threatening nutritional deficits.
So there is a feeling like -
Ah, yikes!
And dispelling these fears and stereotypes is what I do for a living.
Three years ago I started a platform, "Cucina Botanica" [Botanical Kitchen],
through which I make people understand
how beneficial, and also appetizing, plant-based diet is;
and I follow them along this path.
I haven't always been vegan, quite the opposite:
I grew up with an omnivorous diet,
like most of you, I think.
And in theory, I was eating a little bit of everything;
when in practice I was always eating the same 10, 12 dishes,
which are these.
And nothing could be found to eat, it seemed to me,
but this.
When, instead, I discovered - initially, to my own surprise -
that there were a lot of ingredients I had never even considered:
a lot of grains, a lot of legumes.
Not sure about you, but I used to eat lentils on New Year's Eve,
as they were believed to bring money - and it's still believed -
and that was it, period.
And a lot of vegetables, also local, from my area,
which I had never even calculated,
maybe because I thought I didn't like them;
and combining these new ingredients that I discovered
you could create a whole host of dishes
which then became my new favorite dishes.
So I say to you: challenge yourself, it's something within your reach,
the great thing is that everyone can try.
Try yourself, and I'm sure you'll find a thousand dishes to love;
and you'll see firsthand
how little it takes to change your lifestyle,
how easy it is.
And you'll find yourself not afraid of eating vegetables anymore:
It'll seem to you the world's most consequential thing.
And the only question you will ask yourself is:
"Heck, how didn't I think about that sooner?"
This one I'm giving you tonight
is not "the" solution to the ongoing climate disaster;
but it is the greatest action
that each one of us can do every day, beginning tonight,
to have a positive impact on the planet around us.
Without bothering - without waiting, especially,
for industries and governments to move,
we can start acting from our little environment
with a very, very impactful action.
One thing is certain: nothing can change,
if we keep doing what we've always done.
Do we want to be that generation that will be remembered
for giving the coup de grace to their own planet,
or do we want to be that generation that will be remembered
for addressing the challenge, taking action and changing the world?
It's a choice we can make.
Thank you.
(Applause)