I’d like to start this post with full disclosure. I still eat beef occasionally but I struggle with it and I am working towards a meatless diet. I have come to accept that consuming four legged animals is quite simply bad for our health and bad for our environment. In terms of environmental pollution, the meat industry is worse than cars, planes, and all other forms of transportation put together. A 2006 UN Report says that raising cattle for human consumption is the greatest threat to our climate, forests, and wildlife [1]. I feel pretty ridiculous going through the motions of environmentalism (recycling my plastics and newspapers, changing my light bulbs, carrying around a cloth grocery bag, limiting how much I use my car, etc..), while still committing the greatest sin of them all…eating beef.
There was a time when I could have made the argument that it was unsafe to eat “factory farmed” beef, but fine to eat organic or “all natural” (whatever that means). I still believe that we are less likely to get food born illnesses from organic beef, but by eating any meat at all we are contributing to the destruction of our air, water, and soil. Not to mention that we are feeding countless tons of grain to cows and pigs while babies starve all over the world. In order to produce one pound of meat, farm animals are fed around sixteen pounds of grain. There is no doubt that one of the biggest causes of food shortage and starvation around the globe is the over-consumption of meat by first world nations, especially the United States. The amount of grain needed to produce one hamburger could feed 50 hungry people. Harvard Nutritionist Jean Mayer says that if we cut our beef consumption by 10 %, we could feed 60 million hungry people each year. Every burger I eat = less food for starving people. That’s tough to swallow.
There are some who make the argument that we humans NEED to eat meat. I just don’t believe that. Plenty of other foods have a comparable amount of protein (beans, cauliflower, asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, watercress, and yams, to name just a few). Eating meat is a leading contributor to almost all kinds of cancers and lots of other diseases including heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s, and high blood pressure. I think the risks far outweigh any benefits there may be.
Until I gather up the will power to forgo meat all together, I will try and stick with the most sustainable types- poultry and fish. In addition I have joined millions of other struggling meat-eaters who have pledged to give up meat at least once a week (meatless mondays [2]). Won’t you join us?
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Jessica Alfreds [5]
Latest posts by Jessica Alfreds (Posts [7])
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