How Eating Less Beef Helps the Environment

I've been a vegetarian for nearly 7 years. Before 2003, I always thought about going vegetarian, but a conversation with a friend about mad cow disease and all the steroids and other scary chemicals and pollutants that end up in our meat and seafood prompted me to go all the way. In other words, I don't eat beef, poultry or seafood. Basically, I don't eat anything with a face.

Since high school, I had limited the amount of red meat I eat because heart disease and cancer run in my family. When I decided to become a vegetarian, it was easy to eliminate meat from my diet altogether since I hadn't been eating much. Many people ask me if I felt different -- healthier. I have to admit I didn't feel different, but that is probably because I wasn't eating much in the first place. I felt more of a difference when I stopped drinking diet Coke. But that is the topic for another blog...

When I became a vegetarian, I had no idea I was being green. A few years later, I saw the following statistic from World Watch Institute at Great Sage -- one of my favorite vegetarian/vegan/green restaurants which is in Clarksville, Maryland. The statistic was:

It takes 25 gallons of water to make 1 pound of wheat
and 2,500 gallons of water to make 1 pound of meat

Scary stuff. To learn more about how beef impacts the environment, watch this brief (6:47) video which is a trailer to the film "The Secret Life of Beef". I bet it has an impact on you.

If you are a regular meat eater, trying having a Meatless Monday. Or perhaps a Meatless Thursday. The generations who come after us will thank you.

Why Vegan (and Vegetarian) Food Options Are Better for the Environment

The average person may turn up their nose at the thought of vegan food, but that is probably because they either haven’t tried it at all OR they haven’t tried GOOD vegan food. They also probably don’t understand why eating a vegan diet is good for the environment.

According to the New Leaf Vegan Society, “animal agriculture is a major contributor to climate change” because of their high CO2 and methane emissions. Furthermore, the World Watch Institute states that it takes 25 gallons off water to produce one pound of wheat, while it takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat. That 2,500 gallons includes the care and feeding involved with raising the animal and then slaughtering it. That is a heckuva lot of water for just ONE POUND OF MEAT. Multiply that times ALL the POUNDS of meat processed daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and that adds up to a lot of water -- something we are lacking on already (just ask California). In fact, many experts say that the shortage of water is going to be the next big world crisis.

I’m not trying to turn the world vegetarian or vegan, even though it would be pretty fabulous. We all need to do all we can to protect the environment. At the very least, try to eat less meat and dairy. Maybe start out by having a meat free day and then maybe a dairy free day. Heck, I’m not perfect. I’m a cheese-addicted vegetarian and know I need to eventually eliminate it from my diet. I’m working on it.

If you are an event professional, start working in more vegan and vegetarian options into your menus. More and more people are turning vegetarian/vegan, so why not offer more options?