By 
Since reading The OMD Plan earlier this year, I’ve taken up Suzy Amis Cameron on her book’s challenge: to eat one plant-based meal each and every day. It’s a genius idea, easy enough for even confirmed carnivores, and especially important now as we learn more about the profound negative effects of animal agriculture on our planet, not to mention the health advantages of cutting back on our consumption of meat and dairy.
I was introduced to Suzy by our mutual friend Mellody Hobson and then again when I visited the L.A. set of Avatar 2, which Suzy’s husband, James Cameron, is directing. The couple first met on the set of Titanic, which Suzy had a role in. When they married 19 years ago, Suzy opted to quit acting and focus on being a wife and mother.
Suzy and I have a lot in common, not least that we began our lives on farms—hers on a gentleman’s farm near Dougherty, Oklahoma, where her family had a weekend place; mine on my grandmother’s sliver of land in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Suzy recalls savoring the crunch and color of the produce she picked straight from the fields. My time in the rural South was brief. At 6, I went north to rejoin my mother, who’d moved to Milwaukee.
But like Suzy, I never lost my love of country air and fresh food. A leading environmental advocate and cofounder, with her sister, of the Muse private school in Calabasas, California, Suzy recently visited me in Maui, where we talked about our passion for gardening, eating sustainably, and our concern for the earth’s future, all of which she addresses in The OMD Plan, just coming out in paperback. I wanted to know what started this woman—someone I consider emblematic of how one person can make a difference—on her path.
Oprah: What was the genesis of the One Meal a Day plan? It’s working for me!
Suzy Amis Cameron: From the time I was a girl, I’ve loved vegetables and connected them to good health. When I had my first child, Jasper, 29 years ago, I made an effort to prepare him foods that were mostly organic, whether meat, chicken, eggs, fruits, or vegetables.
OW: And then when you met Jim, and had three more kids?
SAC: Sustainability and doing what we can to protect the planet are guiding principles for us, and we’ve instilled those fundamentals in our children. We wanted them to understand their role as the earth’s stewards from an early age.
OW: So you did the obvious thing: You started a school! I know from experience how hard that is.
SAC: Yes, my sister Rebecca and I started Muse in 2005.
OW: You refer to it as an “environmental school”....
SAC: When you start raising a child’s consciousness about sustainability from the beginning, it becomes part of their fabric.
OW: They were learning to grow and prepare their own organically raised food, among other things. And that was all fine until you saw the documentary Forks over Knives in 2012. Then what happened?
SAC: I’d thought we were doing all the right things foodwise: eating grass-fed beef; free-range chicken; omega-3-packed eggs; a ton of organic vegetables, milk, cheese, and yogurt. We thought we needed the protein and calcium in meat and dairy. That’s what we’d been told.
OW: But that was wrong?
SAC: Completely! The movie traces the experiences of a group of people who used plant-based eating to reverse degenerative disease and expose the myths that we need meat to build muscle and cow’s milk for strong bones and teeth. Honestly, I was shaken to my core. I had Jim watch it, too. Within 24 hours, we cleared out all the food in our home that wasn’t plant-based.
OW: That’s how you Camerons roll. And you did the same thing at your schools?
SAC: Yes. We were all in.
OW: Your motivation for that shift wasn’t just health, though, right?
SAC: Animal agriculture is the number two contributor to climate change—slightly more than all transportation pollution combined. What you put on your plate matters enormously not just to your health, but to the state of the environment.
OW: Your book, though, is not suggesting everyone go vegan or even vegetarian.
SAC: Jim and I eat only plant-based foods, and once we started, we were always on our soapbox—people ran in the other direction when they saw us coming. I realized we needed a more accessible approach, a plan.
OW: And the plan?
SAC: If you eat a single plant-based meal each day as one of your three meals, you will be saving tens of thousands of gallons of water every year and drastically reducing your carbon output. Not to mention the health benefits.
OW: For many, the idea of changing your entire lifestyle by going vegetarian or vegan is overwhelming, so they just shut down. You make it doable. How are the students at your schools—you now have two, right?—responding?
SAC: Yes. Our schools are now entirely plant-based, and kids are having contests to compare who’s saving the most water or how much they’re reducing their carbon footprint. Their enthusiasm is contagious—parents call us to ask for recipes or tips on how to compost.
OW: You and Jim are what I think of as light carriers—you’ve been environmental activists for two decades. But the news about climate is bleak. Are you hopeful we can still improve things?
SAC: We have only about ten more years to avert disaster. My husband and I believe that the more people we can inspire to eat a plant-based diet, the more we can move the needle on the climate crisis, though we all have to do other things as well.
OW: In past conversations with you, the word reverence has come up again and again. Tell me what that means to you and how it relates to what you’re doing with OMD.
SAC: I grew up in a very religious household, but inside a church I never really felt the sense that there was something bigger than us. The only time I felt that way was when I was outdoors.
OW: Where you felt really alive.
SAC: Yes, but my true awakening came when I read Michael Singer’s The Untethered Soul—which I know you love, too—and started thinking about the connection between my inner life and the outer world. Then you encouraged me to read Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth, which is a whole other level.
OW: I agree, and I want everyone to read your book. We’ve posted some of the great recipes you’ve created on oprahmag.com, where readers can also track my progress on the OMD plan. Thank you, Suzy, for joining me in my garden.
SAC: It’s so beautiful, Oprah. Thank you!
Roasted "Cream" of Tomato Soup
Makes 6 servings
Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 3 pounds Roma (plum) tomatoes, quartered
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 4 cups almond milk
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 2 Tbsp. tomato paste (optional)
- 2 tsp. salt
- 1 1/2 tsp. sugar
- Ground black pepper
- Fresh rosemary, for garnish (optional)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400°. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. On sheet, arrange tomatoes, cut side up, and onion. Drizzle with oil and toss gently with hands to coat. Roast until tomatoes are tender, about 30 minutes. Let cool 20 minutes.
- Carefully transfer vegetables and any juices to a blender and puree until smooth. Transfer to a large pot and cook over medium-high heat. Stir in almond milk, lemon juice, tomato paste (if using), salt, and sugar. Season to taste with pepper.
- Bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes to allow flavors to combine. Ladle into 6 bowls and serve. Garnish with rosemary leaves, if desired.
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