Earth Overshoot Day falls on Thursday, July 24, this year. That’s the date when biological and data scientists working with the nonprofit Global Footprint Network have determined that humanity’s worldwide demand for ecological resources (like arable land and clean water) and services (like trees pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and fish spawning more fish) exceeds what the earth can regenerate in 2025.

After that date, humanity starts running up an ecological deficit for the remainder of 2025. The organization also calculates the deficit day by country, based on its citizens’ projected consumption. Here in the U.S., we started running up our 2025 ecological deficit on March 13, which gives us the dubious honor of being among the top 10 earliest overshoot days in the world.

Anyone with a bank account understands that operating in the red with 160 days (for the worldwide population) or 293 days (for Americans) still to go in the calendar year results in serious overdraft fees. The penalties for an ecological overdraft include deforestation, water scarcity, species loss, soil erosion, warming oceans, record-breaking heat waves, drenching rains, flash floods, yearslong droughts and extreme wildfires. Searching this paper’s website, it’s easy to find articles describing instances of each one of these penalties happening in the U.S. this year.

Earth Overshoot Day was first calculated in 2006, and it fell in late August that year. With historical data analytics, Global Footprint Network scientists calculated Earth Overshoot Days going back to 1971. The fateful day that year was right around Christmas. With a few minor anomalies, Earth Overshoot Days are hitting earlier with each passing year. (There have been a few minor anomalies: In the early 1980s, for instance, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to try to slow the overconsumption of goods, which was driving inflation. In response, Americans bought less because things cost more, and Overshoot Day came later than might have been expected.)

But the Global Footprint Network is not all doom and gloom predictions. It is also a leading voice that illustrates how humans can accrue less ecological debt in five key areas: by investing in a healthier plant, enabling Smart City technology, tapping into clean energy sources, promoting population control strategies and paying more attention to food systems.

On that last point, the organization’s calculations show that half of Earth’s biocapacity is used to feed humans. Since the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted, Global Footprint Network Scientists figure that if we cut food waste in half worldwide, we could move overshoot day 13 days in Earth’s favor by 2050. If we replaced 50 percent of global meat consumption with plant-based substitutes, we would move the overshoot date by seven days. And when humans do eat meat, if they opted to buy it from local farmers who use regenerative practices like rotational grazing and slivopasturing (when livestock grazes in forestlands), we can move the overshoot day another nine days.

Adjusting how you eat is akin to altering any other activity for which you’ve fallen into a routine. It takes effort upfront to change, of course, but with repetition, the new behavior becomes second nature. Summertime in Maine, when over 125 farmers markets are in full swing, hundreds more local farms operate roadside stands, and many grocery stores feature locally grown produce, is a great time to make headway on that personal pivot, doing your bit to decrease humanity’s ever-growing ecological deficit.

For more information on the #MoveTheDate campaign, go to overshoot.footprintnetwork.org.

Curried Cauliflower, Chickpea and Sweet Potato Buddha Bowl

In her 2013 cookbook “Meatless,” Martha Stewart dubbed vegetable-forward grain bowls “Buddha Bowls” in a reference to the tradition of Buddhist monks wandering around with their alms bowls to be filled with whatever people could give, and getting a varied selection of titbits in the process. In your kitchen, routinely cooking pots of Maine-grown grains and beans will help you fill your Buddha Bowls with plant-based protein while washing, chopping, and blanching or roasting the vegetables from your market haul soon after returning home gives you a leg up on using (and not wasting) them as the week progresses.

Makes 2 bowls

2 cups chopped cauliflower
1 cup cooked chickpeas
Olive or vegetable oil
1 tablespoon curry powder
Salt
Zest and juice from 1 small lemon
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/4 cup chopped cucumber
2 tablespoons chopped red onion
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 cup cooked whole grains (such as farro, wheatberries or ryeberries)
1 cup chopped roasted sweet potato
1/2 cup cooked green peas
Chopped cilantro leaves, to garnish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

On a baking sheet, toss the cauliflower and chickpeas with 1 tablespoon of oil, the curry powder and 1 teaspoon of salt. Slide the pan into the oven and roast until the cauliflower is cooked through starting to brown on the edges, 15-20 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and toss the vegetables with half of the lemon juice.

Combine the yogurt, cucumber, onion, ginger, lemon zest and the remaining lemon juice in a small bowl and set aside.

To assemble the Buddha Bowls, divide the grains between 2 bowls. Divvy up the curried cauliflower and chickpeas, sweet potatoes, peas and yogurt-cucumber mixture on top of the grains in each bowl. Sprinkle with cilantro. Serve.

Local foods advocate Christine Burns Rudalevige is the former editor of Edible Maine magazine and the author of “Green Plate Special,” both a column about eating sustainably in the Portland Press Herald and the name of her 2017 cookbook. She can be contacted at: cburns1227@gmail.com.