I'm talking about meat. According to a 2006 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations's Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department, "livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, a bigger share than that of transport."
On the same topic, GoVeg.com, a site operated by PETA, claims that eating one pound of meat is releases as many greenhouse gasses as driving an SUV 40 miles. It should be noted, though, that I'm not far enough into my sustainability quest to have any trust for PETA yet.
That said, no one can deny how bad meat consumption is for the environment. I never thought I'd say it, but I'm going to give vegetarianism a try. There are a few things I'll need to do if I am to prepare properly.
The first hurdle in my quest are the two pounds of meat I purchased from Wal-Mart shortly before turning against everything that implied.
Sure, $8.97 for a huge bag of multiple meats piled on one another indiscriminately is a great deal, but I'll have to find a way to get rid of the goods before my quest can begin. This makes me feel like a junkie, vowing to quit after this dose is gone. In spite of this, I'm not flushing my ham down a toilet.
I'll also have to set some ground rules. Green Daily put up a great post on becoming a vegetarian this week, and they broke down the options for aspiring vegetarians into three categories. From their post:
I'm not planning on going full vegan, so the real decision is whether or not I will give up eggs. It's something I'll need to decide soon, before I go to buy groceries this week.
- A lacto-vegetarian does not eat any meat products or eggs, but does eat dairy products.
- An ovo-vegetarian does not eat meat products, but does eat eggs and dairy products.
- A vegan does not eat any meat, eggs or dairy products at all.
I love eggs. As a food, they are both cheap and incredibly versatile. However, I recently watched Baraka, a great film from 1992 without dialogue that juxtaposes nature and society. Here's a clip from it that shows, among other things, a chick factory.
So what do you think, America? Can I give up Eggs Benedict?
4 comments:
Intro is certainly grabbing. I had no idea about PETA, those scumbags!
And ugh, don't look into dairy if you want to keep that up, I guess they measure the acceptable amounts of pus per gallon from infected udders from attached milking machines... also very nasty stuff. I don't so much as justify my meat eating as consciously doublethink it, 1984 style.
But it it soooo delicious.
I just went vegetarian in June, but I eat milk and eggs. The catch is, I buy them from ethical farmers-- grass fed, animals only get antibiotics if they're sick, the chickens don't live in those creepy dark warehouses, etc. etc. Luckily, that type of thing is very easy to get in Athens-- try Snowville Milk, which you can get at Village Bakery, Donkey, or Kroger. Ethical eggs can also be found at the Underground Market, or at grocery stores. You just have to account for them in your budget, because ethically-produced products are much more expensive than the Wal-Mart stuff. Good luck!
Wow, very helpful Molly! I'll have to write those down so I can incorporate them into my shopping.
Very interesting video clip! You never really think about that when you eat eggs. I personally feel bad when I eat meat, but this has opened by eyes to a whole new issue. Very sad. I wish you the best with your vegetarian course!
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