Well, it’s been a few weeks since I decided to drastically cut down how much meat my family consumes. It’s going very well! I’ve been making a lot of the same dishes, except I’ll substitute a can of chick peas or some beans for the meat. Brad and I haven’t noticed that we’re more hungry (thank goodness! I was quite worried about that!), so I think the change is sustainable. Gwen won’t eat meat anyways, so it’s no biggie for her.
Crystle lent me the book Diet For a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe. What an eye-opening book for sure! It discusses how many of our food resources are wasted in feed for our animals - especially beef.
After reading it, I’ve decided to challenge myself to make meat dishes only twice per week for the summer. This is a HUGE switch for us, as we currently eat a vegetarian meal maybe once or twice per week.
Really though, when it takes 2500 gallons of water to make just one pound of beef, and 7 pounds of grain (Lappe), does it make sense to comsume beef many times per week? Chicken is slightly less of an energy consumer, but still, compared to grain and vegetable sources of protein, it just doesn’t make sense (from the perspective of the planet anyways) to rely on animal sources of protein when plant sources are much more readily available and abundant.
Wish me luck on my new adventure!
