As we emerge from winter, spring brings the promise of leafy greens, ripe red berries, and crisp asparagus—and the joy of planting new fruits and vegetables in home gardens. All of this serves as new inspiration for the meals you put on your plate. As you test out budding in-season produce and add new plants to your garden, consider another change you can make to bring fresh life to your spring meals: eating a plant-based meal once a week.  “Vegan diets or plant-based diets, are vastly less resource intensive than animal-based diets,” says Gidon Eshel, research professor of environmental physics at Bard College, who has studied the environmental impacts of plant-based diets . How much does meat affect climate change? A meat-based diet weighs heavily on the environment. The production of meat for human and animal consumption is responsible for 57% of total global food production emissions, while the global dairy sector alone contributes to 4% of global emissions .…