Living Planet Tip of the Week: Eat less meat

WWF

Some of the ‘green living’ tips on our Living Planet Community are easier to adopt than others. For me, it was no trouble at all to wash my clothes in cold water, leave my car behind and take public transit and bring a reusable grocery bag to the store but the thought of changing my diet drastically and becoming a complete vegetarian was a tough one.
(To prove my point: I considered phrasing that last sentence ‘cutting meat out of my diet cold turkey’ and my mind jumped to turkey dinner! I’m not cut out to be a full vegetarian.)
So I’ve taken a baby step towards the ultimate goal of being meat-free and have committed to eat less meat. This, I know, is possible.

Cattle blocking the road Cattle in the Kasese District, Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda. © WWF-Canon / Simon Rawles

How to do it:
Trim down the meat in your diet by half. Replace the protein with beans such as chick peas and kidney beans, which work well in stews and soups. Try tofu in stir-fries. (It’s really not as bad as it looks!) If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas, get a vegetarian cookbook or search for recipes online.
Why I’m doing it:
Raising animals for food creates more greenhouse gas emissions than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. Mind blowing, right? Yet global production and consumption of meat has more than tripled since 1961 and could double again by 2050. Trees, which absorb carbon dioxide, are cleared to create pastureland for animals.
As well, animals create methane and nitrous oxide, two greenhouse gases with more impact on climate per kilogram than CO2. Plus, processing meat uses fuel. Producing one calorie of animal protein requires more than 10 times as much fuel, creating 10 times the greenhouse gas emissions, than one calorie of plant protein.
By eating meat half as often as you do now, you can prevent 680 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere.
You may be reading this and thinking that this is too lofty a goal. If so, try cutting meat out of your diet for one or two days per week. So far, 5823 People have committed to this action. If it sounds like something you can do, let us know!