Eating Lower On The Food Chain

A few weeks ago my friend Wootsie handed me a book called "Low Carbon Diet". A 30 day program to lose 5000 pounds, by David Gershon. She knows I'm interested in reducing my carbon footprint, so she brought it to bridge one night, thinking I might use something from the book for my blog. She was right.

It's a guide to reducing your imprint inside the house, ouside of the house, at your workplace, everywhere, and in addition it shows you how to get your community involved, your kids involved and your co workers involved. His theme is "Psst...save the planet, pass it on."

One of the most important actions an individual can take to reduce CO2 emissions is to broaden your diet and become less dependent on meat. Livestock produced by factory and rainforest farming are inefficient at converting grains and other resources to useable food. Did you know that beef requires 16 pounds of grain just to produce a pound of meat? Add to that the resources used for producing grain, transporting the meat to market, and packaging. It's hard to figure what the real cost of that pound of meat is, in terms of its impact on the planet. A person with a red meat diet emits the global warming equivalent of approximately 5,000 pounds of CO2 a year more than a person with a vegetarian diet. Reducing your intaake of beef and other farm animals will significantly reduce your carbon footprint.

What to do. Review your diet, and look for opportunities to subsitute a meat meal for a vegetarian meal. Read cookbooks or watch cooking shows to discover that there really are many tasty vegetarian meals to be made. Commit to eating at least one less meat meal a week. If you do eat meat and chicken, consider choosing "free range" or "organic" varieties that will contribute to a healthy environment and greater health for you and your family.

Yesterday I went to Sprouts to buy buffalo meat, which was on sale. It is produced from free range buffalo, grass fed, and absolutely delicious. It has a very low fat content, and is only 190 calories for a 1/3 pound patty. This is a great alternative to the standard ground beef we all buy packaged in the supermarket. You actually know where this meat is coming from. The name of the ranch is on the label. My favorite way to eat the buffalo burger is to mix it with 1/2 beef. That way you get a little fat in the meat, still keep the calories low, and have delicious flavor.

Knowing where your food comes from helps consumers know exactly what they are getting. Many markets can now tell you exactly where the food (vegetables mostly) come from, especially if they're local. With meat, it's a little more difficult, but it's a trend that's developing. This is one of the reasons I love the farmers markets. You can actually meet the farmer or rancher that produced the food. It doesn't sound very important until you hear about things like e coli spreading through Europe.

Thanks, Wootise, for loaning me "The Low Carbon Diet." It has lots of ways to save energy around the home and in your community, so if you have a chance to browse through it, please do. In the meantime, replace one of your meat meals every week with a vegetarian meal. They're delicious and nutritious.