Quit Your Meat Habit

Think you're environmentally conscious? If you
are still eating meat, think again. For every pound of beef you eat you
are directly resposible for the consumption of 10 pounds of dry grain.
Let's say you eat less beef the the average American, consuming only 52
pounds of beef per year, one pound a week. If you are very
conservative, using ground beef in cassoroles and such, that might be 4
or 5 meals. Now lets consider the grain that went into producing the
beef. How many meals would you get out of a 10 pound bag of, say,
beans. A 1.25 pound bag is good for about 14 servings, so your 10 pound
bag would get you about 112 meals.

Ok, now, that is assuming
that you eat things like bean soup which are about 90% beans and
cassorole, which is maybe 20% beef. What happens if you directly
replace your beef with grain, so that you are using about the same
proportion of other ingredients?

Those servings of beans are
pretty good-sized, so let's cut it in thirds for our estimate. Now
you're up to 336 meals. Being generous, that is about 65 meals with
grains for each meal with beef.

What about actual cost? Say
you're getting a pretty good deal on beef at $2.50 a pound. We're
saying that's worth about 10 pounds of grain, so what does 10 pounds of
bean soup cost you? If you buy 25lb bags (non-refrigerated dry goods,
keeps for years on the shelf!) you can get that 10 pounds for about 6
bucks. Ha! you say, that costs MORE than beef! Don't forget that that
10 pounds of grain is 336 meals, or 1.7 cents per meal, whereas the
beef is 50 cents per meal, or about 30 times the price.

A
kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions and
other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights
on back home.

Producing a kilogram of beef leads to the emission
of greenhouse gases with a warming potential equivalent to 36.4
kilograms of carbon dioxide. It also releases fertilising compounds
equivalent to 340 grams of sulphur dioxide and 59 grams of phosphate,
and consumes 169 megajoules of energy.

In other words, a kilogram of beef is responsible for the equivalent of the amount of CO₂
emitted by the average European car every 250 kilometres, and burns
enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days. (Meat is murder on the environment)

So how about this. Instead of spending 50 to 100 bucks to replace all
your light bulbs with compact flourescent bulbs, cut the beef out of
your diet in favor of a variety of grains. Most stores have at least 10
different kinds, and if you go to Whole Foods or your local equivalent,
you'll find dozens more. You'll be healthier for it, you'll reduce your
environmental impact, and you'll probably open up a whole world of new
foods you never knew existed.