Meatless Mondays

09/21/2009

Founder of The Red White and Green Jennifer Grayson visits a farmer's market, one way she supports Meatless Monday/
Copyright (c) 2009 Jennifer Grayson

Here are some fast facts you may not know about meat consumption. United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 18% of greenhouse gas emissions come from meat production. A large proportion of that comes from destruction of Amazon rainforest as they clear for cattle grazing (and soybean production). Some comes from the methane produced by cows (yes, guys, that means cow farts and burps), which is 23 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2 which we hear more about. And livestock consumes five times as much grain as people do, which takes up space and emits its own share of greenhouse gases. Eating beef or pork also contributes more greenhouse gases than eating chicken.

Now there's something simple you can do to help curb global warming - don't eat meat on Monday!

"The Meatless Monday Campaign first started as a way to reduce saturated fat intake by 15%, in accordance with the Healthy People 2010 recommendations," explains Ralph Loglisci, Project Director for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Healthy Monday Project, which includes Meatless Monday. "The Meatless Monday campaign also recognizes that food animal production, particularly industrially produced food animals, is resource intensive. The amount of fossil fuel, water, feed, and antibiotics used to raise industrially produced animals is significant. Anyone who reduces his or her meat intake one day a week and replaces it with a healthy vegetarian alternative will do a lot more than simply reduce their carbon foot print."

Americans eat, on average, twice as much protein as the rest of the world, which also happens to be more than the USDA recommends. America grows and kills 10 billion animals every year. By reducing meat portions we can save money, improve health, and help the environment! Mark Bittman did a great piece on the meat machine for the New York Times … he even coined a term – less-meatarianism.

According to Loglisci, “there is more than enough evidence that shows reducing meat consumption nationwide would lead to dramatic improvements in environmental degradation, widespread public and personal health risks, animal welfare and environmental and social justice issues.” He wrote a very informative Center for a Livable Future blog post, How Much Does U.S. Livestock Contribute to Greenhouse Gas Emissions, about the scientific research on how agriculture and meat production contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, debunking some claims floating around that are not so accurate.

Michael Pollan, national best-selling author of The Omnivores Dilemma and The Botany of Desire said on the Oprah show, “Even one meatless day a week — a meatless Monday, which is what we do in my household — if everybody in America did that, that would be the equivalent of taking 20 million mid-size sedans off the road.”

Across the pond, Sir Paul McCartney started a similar movement called Meat Free Mondays. On their website McCartney sings a song urging you to give up meat just one day each week to help curb carbon emissions and slow global warming. Plenty of people are joining the movement, including Sheryl Crow, Sir Richard Branson, Woody Harrelson, Yoko Ono, Chris Martin, Moby, and many others.

Ever since I learned about the chicks being ground alive at egg farms, I have become even more keenly aware of the role my food choices has on the environment, and how little I am aware of what goes on in my food’s production. Though I already try to eat low on the food chain and try to eat organic, I’m not an exclusive vegetarian. Now, I am now going to take this opportunity to definitively join onto Meatless Monday as a way to help out the planet a little more. Lucky for me, and you if you join me, there are many recipes out there by others who have gone this route, including Nutrition Expert Mitzi Dulan, and Jennifer Grayson, Founding Editor of The Red White and Green and Huffington Post's Eco-Etiquette blogger.

And for those people who are already vegans and vegetarians but still want to help, here's another option - Heat Free Mondays. No you don't have to go without a heater, but the idea is to not cook to contribute even more to saving greenhouse gases!