Maggie Smith - 2021

Artist's Statement

For my project, I wanted to emphasize the impact someone can have by making a single choice. Many people don’t know how eating meat is actually hurting the environment. And it’s not because eating meat is literally bad for the Earth, but how agricultural companies handle the demand for more meat. They take it as opportunities to squeeze more cows into their farms and feed them more corn, which is unhealthy for them, to fatten them up, which causes them to release more methane which contributes to climate change. As ordinary citizens, we don’t have a lot of power to change this system. However, by choosing not to eat meat decreases the demand which would force these companies to slow down their meat production. In my project, I decided to cut out foods from grocery ads as well as people and flowers. I lined them up with meat products being on the left and vegetarian-diet friendly foods on the left. Having them be on opposite sides makes it easier to see the contrast between the two food choices and you can see how much more colorful and pleasing the fruits and vegetables side is. I also added flowers to that side to show how choosing those foods will increase Earth’s ability to thrive. The people along the bottom are all holding fruit or vegetables and are excited about it because I wanted to show that this lifestyle can bring happiness even when cutting out a major food from your life. I was motivated to do my project on this topic, because climate change is increasingly becoming more dangerous and it can seem hopeless to do anything about it if you’re not a person of political or social power. However, by simply changing your diet, you’d be surprised by the contribution of your choices can have on our planet.