I love a practical solution, especially when it's good all around - for personal health, the environment, and for living consciously. So when I received an email from Chris Elam, the director of the Meatless Monday campaign - a project of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Columbia University School of Public Health, in association with twenty-seven other public health schools - I was thrilled.
The campaign is focused on convincing the world not to eat chickens, pigs, and other animals--just one day per week (on Mondays, as you may have guessed).
Since it's sponsored by a slew of public health schools, the campaign was set up to promote health, and since I've already written extensively about the fact that eating meat leads to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and lethargy (for example here), I'll skip extended analysis of these facts, other than to say: When Johns Hopkins, Columbia, the American Dietetic Association, and dozens of other health organizations argue that the less meat you eat, the better off you'll be, it's worth listening to them.
Chris wrote to share the fact that Michael Pollan had just argued in favor of the campaign on Oprah, saying, "[w]e don't realize it when we sit down to eat, but that is our most profound engagement in the rest of nature... To the extent that we push meat a little bit to the side and move vegetables to the center of our diet, we're also going to be a lot healthier..." I wasn't surprised, since Pollan's most recent book calls on all of us to eat "mostly plants," and his new movie (Food, Inc.) offers a stomach-turning look at factory farming and slaughterhouses (I highly recommend it).
As an aside on Food, Inc.: The scene that I found most interesting is the one where Joel Salatin, proprietor of Polyface Farm, was slaughtering chickens and talking a mile-a-minute through the process. He was talking about treating the animals with respect, but in the theater where I saw the film, this scene elicited perhaps the most audible shock of the entire movie because you can actually see the animals being slaughtered (contrast this with the secrecy of factory farms and slaughterhouses--no one is allowed because, as Paul McCartney likes to say, the process would turn everyone vegetarian). Anyway, this scene seemed to shock a lot of people, even though this is poultry slaughter at its most humane. Actually, the scene reminded me of that Sarah Palin interview that she conducted in front of the turkey slaughter; it's worth remembering that most chickens and turkeys have a far more horrific experience in the factory farms that process more than 98% of the birds we eat.
Chris also wanted to share their new video, in which their scientists tell us that if all Americans switched from eating chickens and pigs to eating beans and grains for just one day per week, that would stop as much global warming as if everyone in the U.S. shifted to ultra-efficient Toyota hybrids (which is the weekly equivalent of using 12 billion fewer gallons of gasoline). Of course I have to point out the obvious: If we all stopped eating animals completely and shifted to vegetarian foods, that would save 84 billion gallons of gas per week (and all the troubles that go with that kind of consumption).
I know that some readers will argue that the issue is not the meat industry, but factory farmed meat. But in fact, environmentally, all meat requires exponentially more resources to produce than eating grains and beans, as eloquently discussed in the Audubon Society's magazine a few months back. And all meat contributes to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and so on. Some meat may be "less bad," but according to the science, no meat is good.
And I know that some vegetarians pooh pooh Meatless Monday as not enough. I'm sympathetic to that view, but I think it's unnecessarily strident. For people who think that going totally vegetarian is too challenging, the Meatless Monday campaign offers a gentle entrée into the idea of eating without eating animals. My hope is that people will use the campaign as a stepping stone--first one meatless day per week, then three, then five, then seven. As we lean into meatless eating--switching out more and more meat meals for meatless meals--we end up feeling better, both physically and ethically.
And another point for those who might think that Meatless Monday is not enough: The first family of vegetarianism--Sir Paul McCartney and his daughters--recently launched the campaign in the UK. Stella and Mary have been vegetarian since birth, and Paul has been a vegetarian for more than two decades.
For recipes and cooking information, check out the Meatless Monday site. And for tips on making the transition to vegetarian eating, please click here.
Happy eating!
Starting next Monday, July 6th, check out HuffPost Green's weekly Meatless Monday feature for great recipes.
Kathy Freston: Eating Animals: Why Eating Matters
Aaron Gross: Jonathan Safran Foer's Controversial New Book, Eating Animals
Hazelnut Amasaki w/Kudzu Porridge
Fried Dulse
Some of us must eat meat. I am a diabetic and cannot eat all the carbohydrates that you all eat. Even the smallest amount of vegetables and fruit cause my blood glucose to increase. Since I have been on a high meat, low-carb meal plan I have never felt better. (And all my blood test results are excellent). I would love to see our animals be raised and slaughtered more humanely and am willing to pay for that- but doing without meat is not a choice for me. It would be a death sentence.
If veganism were as popular as the original Beatles, who as we know were more popular than Jayzus, then the earth could breathe a sigh of relief and we could set all our cattle free to populate the earth like Canadian geese.
What a wonderful world that would be!
Note to Sir Paul: Suggested album title -- "Beat the Meatles."
I must object, however to the post that identifies tofu, and no other food, as the "meat-substitute" for people wishing to transition to a meat-less diet. I've seen so many people get to that tofu-gobbling stage and never go any further that I think it's a shame to introduce such a corrupted food at any stage of the educational process. Let's offer people the foods and the lifestyle that REALLY support full vitality, instead of giving them denatured, unbalanced, processed "meat substitutes" like tofu that are barely one step above junk food, and possibly loaded with unwanted estrogenic compounds, to boot.
And maybe try replacing that morning coffee with an organic apple. Studies show that an apple can give you just as much energy and alertness boost as a hit of caffeine, without the letdown afterwards.
Bon appetit!
http://www.yvesveggie.com/products/detail.php/meatless-hot-dog
. . . and a good quality meat-based equivalent. I'm not claiming that these meat substitutes are particularly good for you, but there's no way these are going to be any worse for you than the meat by-products & nitrates that get stuffed into your typical American wiener.
[No censorship required here]
Suggest everyone look at "Diet for a New America" by John Robbins. Still a classic 20 years after exposing the horrors of the meat industry. It will break your heart and gall you into action.
Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Diet-New-America-John-Robbins/dp/0915811812
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0040325
Got any more?
What it shows is that white people with high consumption of red meat and processed meats have a much higher incidence of cancer of the liver, colon, and esophagus as compared to white people with the lowest rates of consumption of red meat and processed meat.
Please note that it does NOT ascribe any special benefit to vegetarianism or veganism. It just says more meat presents a higher risk than less meat. It does not support Ms. Freston's assertion that "no meat is good."
It does NOT follow from this research that no meat is better than low meat consumption. That has never been scientifically proven. It is merely a claim made by certain food faddists and cultists.
If I were trapped in a vegan universe, I'd much rather eat fresh sprouted or cooked legumes, and maybe tempeh. At least tempeh (fermented whole soybean product) has the whole bean in it, and has a pleasant taste. To me, tofu is just junk food.
My body works better with moderate meat consumption. In addition to the many vegetarian meals I enjoy, I will continue eating meat.
It's not about extremes it's about consciousness and functional sustainability.
Wow, my four yr old is more mature than that. She knows where her hamburger came from, she watched it grow up. She knows where her tomato came from too, she helped plant it.
Just imagine if all you with "consciousness" would stand up and fight these companies who are putting chemicals into our foods. All these drug companies who knowingly release harmful drugs into our society all in the name of money. Why don't you stand up against that madness? Why not fight the genetically modified seed companies? There is PROOF that they don't yield more. I have seen with my own eyes how they do NOT cut down on the weeds, they may at first, but after a few years, the weeds (like the insects) become resistant. But the farmers continue to use them because the government has it set up that way. Money for lobbyist, poor health for us all! Meat is not killing anyone. Pharmaceuticals are killing people every single day! BTW, pesticides are made by pharmaceutical companies, in case you don't know.
If you believe that, why do you defend statements like:
"And all meat contributes to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and so on. Some meat may be "less bad," but according to the science, no meat is good."
That is extremism par excellence.
"Don't follow leaders, or waking parking meters...."--Bob Dylan
The mask is awfully thin. It's pretty transparent, isn't it?
If you feel you need to eat meat, then by God you should be willing to hunt it down, kill it with your bare hands, tear it apart and eat it raw, like they do. Fair's fair. Give'm a fighting chance.
Humans have two canine teeth, meant for puncturing the flesh of fruits; the remainder of our teeth are flatter, meant for grinding grains and mashing veggies. Carnivorous animals have lots of canine teeth, meant for rending flesh.
Carnivorous animals have short, straight, intestines, so that they can extract the nutrients from a carcass and then expel it quickly before it rots. In humans the small intestine alone is about 20 feet long and curves around and around to fit. Vegetation does not putrefy nearly as quickly, so can move through the body at a more leisurely pace. So many diseases that people have are due to using their bodies as graveyards for animals.
The human body can adapt to almost anything. (such as meat-eating, inhaling smoke, exposure to radiation, etc.). That doesn't make it natural.
By the way, you need to check out the mouths of cattle, sheep, goats, deer and so on. These animals (ruminents) have no upper-front teeth and their digestive tract is much longer than ours. They can also digest grass and leaves, unlike the human animal.