Did you know that to produce one pound of beef requires 2,500 gallons of water, more than 40 times what you would use to make a pound of potatoes? Then factor in the energy used to feed and raise the beef, the fuel to transport it and the amount of methane produced by the cattle all so we can eat some beef; this equals out to a real eco bad guy.
So today the focus is to start a habit to limit the amount of meat my family and I are eating. We are not a super crazy meat family to begin with, but this gives me even more reason to limit our intake of animal. Yesterday we had a fully meat-free day and today was almost meat-free (there was some chicken in our soup for lunch.)
When you hear people talk about the importance of thinking globally but acting locally I think that is also applicable to how we treat our bodies and the earth. The first step is to focus on how we are treating our own body, what we are putting into it, on it, and around it (being local). When we are aware of how we are nurturing ourselves we can become more aware of how to nurture mother nature (thinking global.)
It all starts with awareness, and today's awareness has given me the chance to minimize my harm to livestock and in turn minimize my negative effects on the earth. Join me this week and skip the livestock for one of your meal's. Even doing it once a week will make a difference!
Laurel and I have done the same thing. Limit meat to dinners (mostly), smaller portion size, less meat nights and very little beef (beef and sheep as ruminants produce methane which makes their carbon foot print much worse). We stick to "sustainable" chicken or seafood mostly.
ReplyDelete