“Eating 6.6 lbs. less of red meat a year is equivalent to reducing household water use by half.” Rebecca Blackburn, Green Is Good: Smart Ways to Live Well and Help the Planet
Americans eat roughly eight ounces of meat a day which is approximately twice the global average. To put that in perspective 2.2 pounds of beef burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days. Gidon Eshel, a geophysicist at the Bard Center, and Pamela A. Martin, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20% it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan, i.e. Toyota Camry, to a Prius. So instead of buying that new hybrid you have been eyeing an even better way to contribute to the health of the planet is to eat less meat.
The mitzvah this week is to consciously reduce your meat consumption. You don’t have to go to the extreme and become a vegan or a vegetarian. Just try to cut back a bit. Americans consume approximately 110 grams of protein a day which is about twice the recommended daily allowance. About 75 grams of that comes from animal protein. You could safely cut that down to 30 grams of plant protein a day and have a healthy diet. The best source of plant protein is the legume family which includes lentils, kidney beans, peanuts, peas and edamame.
Minimizing meat is a low impact way to have a high impact effect on the world. In January, Rajendra Pachauri, who is the head of the United Nation’s Nobel Prize-winning scientific panel on climate change, asked the world to “please eat less meat.” His team considers climate change the planet’s biggest problem and points to eating less meat as one way to help.
Let’s really support each other in minimizing the meat in our diets. My strategy is to not build my meal around the meat. In America we tend to make meat the focal point on the plate with vegetables and starch as the “side dishes.” One way to minimize the meat is to reduce the meat portion and make the vegetables and starch the main attraction. If I make desirable veggie, rice, potato and bean dishes, I won’t miss the meat as much.
How are you minimizing the meat? Your strategies will inspire us all.
July 1st, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I’ve recently been amazed at how many little changes can add up to big results. Thank you for your daily musings! They are fabulous and I’m always reminded that caring for the planet is the same as caring for oneself, it takes just small steps a lot of times in a row.
