Join us for Earth Day and be inspired to make dietary change to create planetary change!

How do our food choices impact the environment? Choosing a vegan lifestyle substantially reduces an individual's impacts on climate, water consumption, water quality and many other environmental impacts, but is that enough? What more can we do to examine and reduce our impact on the environment to ensure that all animals (human or non-human) have a sustainable home on this planet we share? If a food is plant-based, but harms animals in its production, is it vegan? Julie will examine the impacts of food choices from production through consumption and ask tough questions about if being vegan is enough to ensure the protection of endangered ecosystems.

Dr. Julie Sinistore has been vegan for 18 years (half her life) and first turned to vegetarianism 22 years ago, after reading Frances Moore Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet. In her current position as a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) project director and consultant with WSP, she analyzes the environmental burdens and benefits of the production, use, transportation, and disposal of goods and services like agricultural products, but also electronics and construction products. Julie also teaches courses on Life Cycle Thinking and Sustainable Product Design in the mechanical engineering department at UC-Berkeley. Julie sits on the board of the American Center for LCA (ACLCA) and serves as vice chair of the education committee. Julie was featured on episode 411 of the Our Hen House podcast and gives lectures on the environmental impacts of food choices around the bay area. Her educational path from a BS in Natural Resource Management with a Concentration in Conservation and Applied Ecology from Cook College of Rutgers University through her MS in Agroecology and PhD in Biological Systems Engineering from UW-Madison lead her to study everything from soils and climate to engineering and agriculture. Today, she endeavors to make the world a more sustainable place through her career and life-style choices.