I became a vegetarian around 1997 and stayed that way for three years. My reasons weren't ethical or environmental, mainly health. For those who don't eat meat for health reasons, or because they don't believe in killing conscious creatures, this article is not for you.
When I became a vegetarian, I read Frances Moore Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet (still a great read, if you keep in mind that some of the info is dated). Its grain-and-bean combining amino acid theories have influenced vegetarian eating for decades. She also brings to light the fact that eating vegetarian is more resource-friendly - essentially, you have to feed (and water) the animal you're eating a lot more than you would have to eat to sustain yourself on purely vegetable matter. So one person consumes less acreage if they eat vegetarian. It's worth thinking about, and it's still true. Interestingly, Ms. Lappe is not a vegetarian herself. I haven't read her new book yet, but plan to.
Time magazine this week has an extremely intriguing article that I recommend any sustainable foodies out there pick up. It's entitled Save the Planet: Eat More Beef* (asterisk reads: Grass feeding required). In essence, free range beef is putting more carbon into the soil than it is taking out by consumption (whoa, the way nature is supposed to work!) Not only that but grass fed beef is much lower in fat and higher in omega-3's. An interesting quote from the article: "A vegetarian eating tofu made in a factory from soybeans grown in Brazil is responsible for a lot more CO2 than I am [by eating grass fed beef]."
I'd be willing to bet that, unless you're a vegetarian, you could stand to eat LESS meat than you already do, and that's a step in the right direction wherever your meat comes from. But on an environmental scale, and a world hunger scale, eating some meat makes sense - an animal can graze on a hillside planted with human-inedible grass, over land that nothing could be planted and farmed for human consumption. That's just wise resource use. From a world hunger perspective, many of the places people are going hungry are not places where there are amber waves of grain - the scrubby grass that grows there isn't good for much but livestock.
So, from an environmental standpoint, some things you can do to make a difference in your environmentally conscious omnivorism:
1) Eat less meat.
2) Eat free range meat.
3) Eat local organic meat.
When I became a vegetarian, I read Frances Moore Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet (still a great read, if you keep in mind that some of the info is dated). Its grain-and-bean combining amino acid theories have influenced vegetarian eating for decades. She also brings to light the fact that eating vegetarian is more resource-friendly - essentially, you have to feed (and water) the animal you're eating a lot more than you would have to eat to sustain yourself on purely vegetable matter. So one person consumes less acreage if they eat vegetarian. It's worth thinking about, and it's still true. Interestingly, Ms. Lappe is not a vegetarian herself. I haven't read her new book yet, but plan to.
Time magazine this week has an extremely intriguing article that I recommend any sustainable foodies out there pick up. It's entitled Save the Planet: Eat More Beef* (asterisk reads: Grass feeding required). In essence, free range beef is putting more carbon into the soil than it is taking out by consumption (whoa, the way nature is supposed to work!) Not only that but grass fed beef is much lower in fat and higher in omega-3's. An interesting quote from the article: "A vegetarian eating tofu made in a factory from soybeans grown in Brazil is responsible for a lot more CO2 than I am [by eating grass fed beef]."
I'd be willing to bet that, unless you're a vegetarian, you could stand to eat LESS meat than you already do, and that's a step in the right direction wherever your meat comes from. But on an environmental scale, and a world hunger scale, eating some meat makes sense - an animal can graze on a hillside planted with human-inedible grass, over land that nothing could be planted and farmed for human consumption. That's just wise resource use. From a world hunger perspective, many of the places people are going hungry are not places where there are amber waves of grain - the scrubby grass that grows there isn't good for much but livestock.
So, from an environmental standpoint, some things you can do to make a difference in your environmentally conscious omnivorism:
1) Eat less meat.
2) Eat free range meat.
3) Eat local organic meat.
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