Face the fear, Part 1: Eat less meat
Face the Fear is a series about a dozen things that you can do right now to feel better about what and how you eat.
(photo by Amanda Kelso)
Here’s a fact you might find surprising: how much meat you eat can have the biggest single impact on your personal carbon emissions. That’s right–not your car, not your trip to Mexico, not your house–but your steak.
Meat is one of the most energy-intensive and resource-guzzling foods around. It takes about 2kg of grain to produce 1kg of chicken, 4kg of grain to produce 1kg of pork, and 7kg of grain to produce 1kg of beef. At a time when grain is in short supply around the world, it is very hard to justify continuing to eat the Canadian average of just over 6oz of meat per day.
Here’s a quick indicator of meat’s impact: if Americans, who eat about 8oz meat/day, were to reduce their consumption by a mere 20% (less than one meat-based meal per week), it would have the same impact on carbon emissions as if every car-owner in the States switched from a standard sedan to a Prius.
Industrially-farmed meat–that is, what you usually find in the grocery store–is particularly hard on the environment:
- It takes 8 times as much fossil-fuel energy to produce animal protein as plant protein.
- It takes 3,900 litres of water to produce 1kg of chicken, 4,800 litres of water to produce 1kg of pork, and 15,500 litres of water to produce 1kg of beef.
- 40kg of water- and air-polluting animal waste is created for every 1kg of industrially-produced beef.
By eschewing meat altogether, eating smaller quantities of meat less often, or choosing chicken, lamb, or pork more often than beef, you can cut your carbon emissions dramatically. It will also conserve massive quantities of water, reduce environmental pollution, and free up acreage to grow food for people, not animals. Obviously, some land and some plants/grains are suited only for supporting animals, but I’m not talking about getting rid of livestock full stop–just reducing the excessive and unnecessary consumption of meat that puts huge stresses on the planet and the majority of its poorer inhabitants. Most of our grandparents certainly thought of meat as a treat, and we should too.
You can further improve the environmental impact of your chicken breast or pork chop by avoiding factory-farmed meat and choosing high-quality meat from small-scale local farmers which has been naturally or organically-raised. These animals are raised in much more humane conditions and it shows in the taste. This meat may be more expensive than the dirt-cheap grocery store option, but we have seen again and again that we simply cannot afford to cut corners with meat production. When rock bottom prices become the chief priority for food manufacturers and consumers, can we really be suprised when they start selling us garbage?
I must confess that I just like meat, and I used to eat it pretty much every day. But I stopped buying it at the grocery store quite some time ago after having not just one, but two, bulk packages of hamburger recalled because of suspected e.coli contamination. I had also read Fast Food Nation and was completely horrified to learn how animals were raised, slaughtered, and processed in the industrial meat system. Furthermore, I was living in England during the BSE crisis. As a consequence, I can’t donate blood in Canada and have a small but persistent fear about how long the incubation period for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) might turn out to be. I now buy meat solely from local farmers and ranchers, and it tastes how the chicken and the beef we used to raise on the farm used to taste.
In the past year I have tried to stick to a meat/vegetarian daily meal rotation, which has reduced my consumption by 50%. I’d like to reduce it even further–although I vividly remember the time that I decided to give up meat entirely when living in London, and by day 3, thought I was going completely insane. Despite huge quantities of plant protein and nuts, I was completely irritable, tearful, and felt utterly on the verge of collapse. Finally, in exasperation, one of my co-workers said to me, ‘For god’s sake, Sue, just go out and get a bacon sandwich!!’ I’m rather sorry to say that it completely did the trick and I have not attempted to go that long without some kind of animal protein again.
Further reading:
- Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
- The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
- How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bitten
