Better Than Meatfree Mondays

Paul McCartney and his daughters aren't trying to make us all full-time vegetarians, though they themselves eschew meat.

"It's an environmental conversation, not a vegetarian one. It's ok to just give up meat for one day. It doesn't make you a vegetarian if you hate vegetarians. It doesn't make you a cranky, hemp wearing pot smoker. It's alright, it's allowed. It doesn't make you a kind of person you don't want to be. It just means you are doing something positive," Stella McCartney said in June when she and her dad and sister launched their Meatfree Mondays campaign.

Lowering our meat consumption will lower our carbon emissions - potentially having as much of an impact as if we all leave our cars at home and get on our bicycles to ride to work. On a personal basis we can cut our carbon in half with just three steps, one of which is weekday vegetarianism.

The McCartney's gentle approach - suggesting less meat instead of pushing no meat - may also have some sustainable agriculture benefits, supported by scientific research.

Cornell researchers looked at land requirements of the diets of New Yorkers and found that low-fat vegetarian diets took up the least amount of land, less than half an acre per person, while high meat and dairy diets required more than 2 acres.

Here's the interesting part, however. If a local, sustainable food production system is what we are aiming for, then a mixed diet may be the most efficient use of the land we've got. Fruits and vegetables need lots of high-quality cropland, while pastureland of lesser quality can be used to support grass-based farming.

"It appears that while meat increases land-use requirements, diets including modest amounts of meat can feed more people than some higher fat vegetarian diets," Christian Peters said in a report Cornell's research on Science Daily.

This basically echoes what sustainable agriculture advocates and small farm advocates have been saying for a while. Joel Salatin of Food Inc. is the most ardent of the grass farming advocates, but he is not alone.

And meanwhile, how much meat? For New York, Cornell's researchers actually established a number and it was 2oz. per person per day, or 14 oz. per week. Which makes meatless weekdays and occasional splurges seem like a very smart thing.

Read more about meat-free weekdays at TreeHugger and Planet Green
Green Food Matters
::Try a Weekday Vegetarian Diet: Eating Green Food Without Taking the Plunge
::How and Why to Eat Less Meat
Take if From a Beatle: Cut Your Carbon Footprint by Making Mondays Meat-Free
Climate-Friendly Cows Make Meat Eating a Little Less Bad
The Eco-Diet Isn't Just About Food Miles

Read more from Graham Hill on Huffington Post
::Better Than Meatfree Mondays
::Branzini: The Greenest Fish You've Never Heard of
::Bright Idea? Citizen-Controlled Street Lamps
::Naked Bikers and the True Cost of Traffic
::Jellyfish Spaghetti and Your Own Carry Container
::Twitter Feeding Your World
::Electric Cars Will Be Cheaper Than You Think
::E-Bike: Car-Free Encouragement or Bike Balkanizer?
::Put Down That CAFO Pork Chop
::Your Ungreen Brain Needs More Nature

 

Follow Graham Hill on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ghill

Comments

[rumsblogger]

That's fine and won't make people uncomfortable, but people who eat meat will die sooner, so if you love your friends and neighbors, you might want to take a more forceful approach to education them more about the perils of meat.

Excerpts from
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/Story?id=7153072&page=1

Diets high in red meat and in processed meat shorten life span not just from cancer and heart disease but from Alzheimer's, stomach ulcers and an array of other conditions as well, a U.S. National Cancer Institute study has found.

U.S. National Cancer Institute researchers reported that a quarter-pound hamburger or a small pork chop eaten daily could put you at increased risk for a variety of cancers.

[guess what?]...the American Meat Institute objected to the conclusion...[but the sobering facts say...]

Dying from cancer also was more likely among those eating the most red meat: 22 percent higher for men, 20 percent for women. The risk for death from cancer increased 12 percent for men and 11 percent for women who ate the greatest amount of processed meat.

Stop eating meat, 'cuz I want y'all to live. (good for the planet too)

[GuyRC]

This is what I did, I eat meat less than once a week. I don't have to be a pain at friends houses when they are cooking for me.

[Clairvaux]

It's a good compromise.

Nice going.

[drkazmd65]

I (barring a medical opinion requiring me to do so) will never be a vegetarian. It's not just that I enjoy eating meat (I do), but that small amounts of meat (preferably organic & as local as possible) do provide protein, minerals, vitamins and essential nutrition that it is much more difficult to achieve on a strict vegetarian diet.

Yes - with work, planning, time and learning, one CAN get a balanced vegetarian diet. But most of 'us' don't have the time or inclination to get all that done.

I already go meatless or nearly meatless several times per week. Often this means I get my protein from eggs or cheeses when I do so. But there is nothing wrong with a good eggplant dish, a meal based around legumes, or such multiple times per week.

I can't wait for my first eggplants to be harvested this year,... should be a matter of days now,...

[Clairvaux]

"but that small amounts of meat (preferably organic & as local as possible) do provide protein, minerals, vitamins and essential nutrition that it is much more difficult to achieve on a strict vegetarian diet. "

That's not true.

If you eat a diverse and varied vegetarian diet, it is virtually impossible NOT to get everything you need, with the possible exception of B12.

But you are doing good, cutting back like you are doing would change our planet, if it was widely adopted.

And you are right. Eggplant dishes are wonderful.

[Ashwini]

Here at Meatless Monday we truly appreciate the efforts of Paul McCartney and his daughters. We're glad to see the concept of going meatless once a week is picking up as we too encourage this commitment for the sake of health and our environment. And right you are that meatless weekdays can be quite a treat, but it does not have to be costly. The website has recipes that are nutritious, delicious, and cost-friendly (featured this week are these Cameo Herbed Potatoes: http://www.meatlessmonday.com/cameo-herbed-potatoes/) For more the campaign check out the Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpnKeYmR1NM.

[elizahleigh]

I believe that every single one of us can easily go without meat for one day a week (probably even TWO) without feeling as though we're sacrificing anything. Whether you choose to go meat free for the environment, your health, or your wallet, every little effort does make a difference. Factory farming as it stands is NOT doing our world or the creatures that they're processing any good, and what we end up purchasing on the shelves of our grocery stores is making us sick. Watch the free screening of Food, Inc. across the country in the next several weeks (courtesy of Chipotle Mexican Grill) to really understand what's happening with our severely flawed food system.

There are countless creative recipes out there that don't involve tofu or the typical protein substitutes that put the fear of God into most vegetarian-fearing individuals. One recipe that I use all the time is for Whole Foods' Greek Style Veggie Sliders -- here's the video "how to" courtesy of Greenwala, the online green social network: http://www.greenwala.com/community/videos/all/462-How-To-Make-Greek-Style-Veggie-Sliders They are fantastic, satisfying and full of flavor. Which reminds me, if anyone wants to score a $250 Whole Foods gift card, you might want to enter Greenwala's recipe contest. Here's the link: http://www.greenwala.com/greenwala_contests