Fires were sweeping across Florida in the direction of the sanctuary in 1999 due to drought conditions.

At that time the fire department warned us that we were on our own because we were surrounded by woods, not human habitation, and they wouldn’t be bringing their fire trucks down the pot hole ridden, quarter mile of bad road, called Easy Street that led to our gate.  We began installing sprinkler systems on the cats’ cages and had firehoses of our own at the ready to use the dwindling lake water to save our cats.  I felt helpless and did the only thing I could, from a personal perspective.

I quit eating red meat, and so did my teen age daughter.

At least I could save some water by not eating meat because it takes about 9 gallons of water to raise one pound of beef.  That proved to be pretty difficult in the 90s as there weren’t many choices in the grocery stores and almost none in restaurants.  Now that’s different and there are lots of great vegetarian and vegan choices.

Our friends at One Green Planet really made it easy today with their fantastic new app called Food Monster.  Get it here:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/food-monster-5000+-recipes./id1052988561?mt=8

Share these great images with a link to the app:

And check out all of these interesting facts about how your food choices can make or break the planet:  http://www.onegreenplanet.org/eatfortheplanet/

Jamie and I still maintain a primarily plant based diet and are stronger and healthier than most of our peers.  I hope you will check out the app and see if there are some meals that you could replace with some healthier, tastier, planet friendlier options. – Carole Baskin