Solar panels and wind turbines are probably the first things that come to mind when you think of solutions to climate change. A less prominent but equally critical solution is adopting a plant-based diet. Studies show that the meat industry contributes 15% of global carbon dioxide emissions. Our guest today, Peggy Liu, is the founder of the Joint U.S.-China Collaboration on Clean Energy (JUCCCE), a Shanghai-based environmental non-profit. She also serves on the board of Project Drawdown, a global research project that ranks the top solutions to climate change. Through her work on the project, she realized that what we put on our plate is key to solving climate change – adopting plant-based diets ranks as Drawdown’s #4 solution and eight of the top 20 solutions are food-related. As we previously discussed on our Green [Soy] Bean episode, beef consumption in China is rising. Peggy set out to address this source of emissions by launching Food Heroes, a JUCCCE program that teaches kids and their families how to eat a diet that is healthy for the body and planet. Food Heroes employs games and characters to make eating this diet fun. A broader lesson from Peggy’s work: sometimes the best solutions to climate change are not packaged as such climate solutions per se. Peggy has found that health benefits are strong motivators for families to adopt a meat-free diet in China. If emissions drop because families want to eat healthier, that’s a win-win according to Food Heroes. For more about Food Heroes, JUCCCE, and Peggy Liu, you can explore their website here: https://www.juccce.org/about