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Global Warning - May 11, 2004 - Printable Version
- Beef- It's What's For Dinner?
by Robin Buckallew
How many days has it been since your last meal with meat? One? Two? You can't remember the last meal you had without meat? Many of us regard meat as a necessity of life - a right that we guard jealously. It was with some trepidation that I recently entered upon a challenge - 40 days without meat. You heard me - 40 days. No meat. Not even chicken, not even fish. No meat. How did this happen, you ask? Was I arrested, sent to Guantanamo Bay, forced to live on bread and water? No, I chose this challenge. My husband, much more devout than myself, was foregoing meat for Lent. I have never joined him for Lent before. My church has never practiced that discipline. But, what the heck, I thought - it's sustainability. So I joined him for my own personal sustainability Lent. Today, the day before Easter, it is officially over. So how do I feel? I am sorry it is over. Yes, you heard me right. Sorry. Of course, I can (and will) continue a low-meat regimen, but being a full blown vegetarian once my husband resumes his carnivorous ways would engender friction in the marriage as we tried to make diets that would be suitable to both. But, it was fun. I have never had so much fun eating in my entire life. During the last several weeks, I have put together combinations of foods that would have never occurred to me. We become so used to eating the same things - hamburger and fries, pepperoni pizza, steak and potatoes. We rarely innovate. But when you think about it, the choices with vegetables are much more diverse. There are only a few types of meats that we eat. And typically, for the average American, only a few things we do with them. But vegetables - there are many more than we think about. Try, for one, an squash enchilada. Or an avocado taco. During the past few weeks, I have eaten less salt, less animal fat, less processed food than at any other comparable period in my life. But I have experienced no loss of flavor. In fact, I have found that the flavor is richer, more complete, and more fulfilling. It has occurred to me that meat has little flavor on its own - it requires seasoning to have the full rich flavors we associate with it. Not so with vegetables. Vegetables can be safely consumed raw. No hamburger (unsalted) has nearly as much flavor as broccoli. I have enriched my life. So what, you say? I am writing about environmental matters, but I go on about broccoli as though I were some sort of cooking column. OK, few facts.
Americans consume more meat than any other country in the world. We make up less than 5% of the world's population, but we consume about 25% of the world's beef. So why should the rest of the world care if we eat so much meat that we clog our arteries, get gout, or die obese? We are a rich nation, and we pay for the beef. We are hurting no one but ourselves. After all, cows are natural, and a normal part of the ecosystem. But, a few facts about cows.
Raising cows requires a considerable amount of grain. It takes 21 pounds of vegetable protein to produce one pound of cow. The United States livestock population consumes enough grain and soybeans to feed more than five times the population of the country. A single acre of pasture that can produce 165 pounds of beef can produce 20,000 pounds of potatoes. Much of the beef eaten in this country is being produced in the tropical rainforests, which are cut down to make room for grazing cattle in order to produce inexpensive beef for the American market. For every quarter pound hamburger you eat, 55 square feet of rainforest were cleared. Between 1960 and 1985, 40 percent of all Central American rain forests were destroyed to create pasture for beef cattle.
In addition to the amount of grain required, every pound of beef produced requires the equivalent of one gallon of gasoline and 2500 gallons of water. Cattle are raised in crowded feed lots, known as confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) that produce large amounts of methane, contributing to global warming. And although the manure produced contains nitrogen that can be a valuable contribution to the fertility of our agricultural soils, much excess manure ends up as a contaminant in our lakes, rivers and streams, and some of the contaminants even leach down to get into our groundwater. Yes, this is the very water that we are drinking. So, in the final analysis, the practice of eating large amounts of meat daily are contributing to deforestation, loss of topsoil, dependence on foreign sources of fossil fuel, contamination of our drinking water supplies, loss of topsoil from overgrazing, and yes, even world hunger. Many of the problems we face today are exacerbated by our own diet.
I do not sound a clarion call here to immediately eschew all meat eating. I do not ask that you run out and sell your grill, and vow never to have another hamburger. Consider this. If Americans reduced their meat consumption by only 10%, it would free up 12 million tons of grain annually for human consumption. This would be more than enough to feed 60 million people - the same amount that starve to death every year. Humbling thought? So, accept my challenge. Take a pledge. I am not asking you to give up meat - well, not permanently. Choose some period of time that works for you - a day, a week, a month, maybe 40 days. Go without meat. Try new combinations, new ideas, new flavors. Then, when you return meat to your diet, maybe you will think about new choices. You won't automatically reach for that same old burger and fries. And, when you do return to eating meat, do yourself and the world a favor - for every 10 meals that you would usually have meat, try making it only nine.
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