5 ways to eat less meat
BY Ken Edelstein • October 12, 2009
This is the second of five My Green ATL articles to help Atlantans combat climate change. The first guide covers “5 ways to use less gasoline.“
Here’s a surprising comparison: Only fifteen percent of greenhouse gas emissions caused by human beings comes from transportation, according to a 2006 report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. But raising, processing and consuming livestock generates 18 percent of greenhouse emissions. And livestock production is growing enormously worldwide: It’s projected nearly to double by from 1990 levels by 2050.
So if you really want to combat climate change, eating less meat would be a good place to start. The head honcho of the world’s top climate-change research organization goes a step further.
“In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, it clearly is the most attractive opportunity,” Rajendra Pachauri, who chairs of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told the Guardian last year. “Give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and decrease it from there.”
In fairness to cow and pig farmers, the U.N. stats use “all-in” numbers for livestock — from clearing the land; to making, moving and using fertilizer and feed; to the not insignificant matter of cow flatulence; to transporting livestock; to slaughtering the animals; and even to getting the meat to market.
If you included cradle-to-grave emissions from roads, cars and oil production, the greenhouse gas numbers for “transportation” might look worse. Plus, Atlantans most likely emit more in greenhouse gases by driving than they do by including meat in their diet. Though the South is a heavy meat-eating region, we’re by far bigger drivers.
On the other hand, it is easier around these parts to cut down on meat than to cut down on the driving. The nice thing is that — much like getting out the car — cutting down on meat almost certainly is good for you personally as well as for the planet. Here are five ways to do that, followed by local resources that may help you get there:
1. Create a forbidden zone: You can start by following Pachauri’s advice: Block off a time during which you don’t eat meat and keep expanding that forbidden zone. As he suggests, you can give up meat for one day a week, then for a second day, and so on. Alternatively, you can cordon off certain parts of the day: What if you didn’t eat meat during breakfast and lunch? What if you created a window, say noon to 1 p.m., or 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., outside of which you didn’t allow yourself to eat meat?
2. Honey, I shrunk the portions: The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends that each person eat four ounces of meat every day, but our portions tend to be much larger. (It should be noted that the USDA and other nutrition experts don’t say anymore that meat is a necessary part of your diet.) Whether you’re buying for a family, a party or yourself, take into consideration the four-ounce guideline (which covers the whole day, by the way). That means that a pound of meat is plenty for four people. So, if you get a 16-ounce steak, share it with your table mates.
3. The species matters: Generally, the smaller the animal, the more energy efficient it is to turn into food. Cows take more resources to raise than pigs, pigs take more resources than chickens, and chickens more than vegetables — and carbon dioxide emissions vary correspondingly. But cattle are by far the biggest greenhouse offenders for another reason: The complex digestive systems of cows along with their fellow ruminents (goats, sheep and buffalow) emit 28 percent of another greenhouse gas — methane — according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. And their manure is an enormous source of nitrous oxide — the third and most potent of the most widespread greenhouse gases. So, all other factors being equal, pork, chicken and fish generate less in the way of greenhouse gases per calorie than does beef.
4. Be an eat-tizen of the world: The All-American meal — a hamburger (or steak) with french fries (or a baked potato) places red-meat center stage. It doesn’t have to be that way. Some ethnic cuisines — particularly east and south Asian — are more veggie-centric than the typical American diet is. That means time-honored flavorful dishes based on veggies, starches and non-meat-based sauces, as well as a lot more fish and a lot less beef. Atlanta has some excellent Western-style vegetarian restaurants; Dynamic Dish on Edgewood Avenue and Cafe Sunflower on Peachtree Street in South Buckhead come to mind. What better place, however, to try out Asian foods that go light on the meatiness than that avenue of international dining, Buford Highway?
5. Eat local foods: Foodies have long argued that knowing where your food comes from is the first step toward ensuring that it’s healthy. It’s not just fewer miles to travel that make local foods more environmentally friendly. It’s also the fact that local foods tend to come from more farms that use fewer petroleum based soil additives. Georgia Organics, a local nonprofit, publishes a “Local Food Guide” both in print and online that can guide you toward places that sell meats — and other foods — that didn’t travel here from Argentina.
More resources: My Green ATL’s “5 ways to combat climate change” My Green ATL; “Meat: Making Global Warming Worse,” Time, Oct. 11, 2009; “Putting Meat Back in Its Place,” New York Times, June 11, 2008; “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, 2006; Georgia Organics website
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