Go Meatless
- Adrienne
- Mar 22, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 5, 2020
Friends, how we doing.
It's probably safe to say that this past weekend looked a lot different than you may have envisioned just a few weeks ago. This stalking pandemic has disrupted every aspect of life. It's hard to find a corner in which to escape from the news: about the stock market, about the shortage of hospital beds, about job lay-offs...sigh. It's a lot.
At this point, you're probably just trying to keep it together in your work-from-home arrangement and not lose it with your SO/children/parents/pets. Mustering up the motivation to pursue sustainable habits may be the furthest thing from your mind. But it doesn't have to be so! Rather than seeing #socialdistancing as a jail sentence, flip your perspective - now you have a good chunk of time to develop skills and habits that you wouldn't otherwise.
And what's one thing you should learn to do, right now? Cook.
But not just any cooking. This month, we're concentrating on meatless meals.
Alright, Give Me The Facts.
From a sustainability perspective, we know that eating less meat and fewer animal products is the easiest and fastest way to positively impact the environment. There are endless articles and books that explain why this is so, but for highlights:
Emissions: Meat production generates a lot of greenhouse gas emissions: carbon dioxide and its more potent relatives, nitrous oxide (270x more potent than carbon dioxide) and methane (30x more potent than carbon dioxide) - read more about it here. In fact, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 14.5% of global methane emissions come from cow burps! By eating less meat and fewer animal products, you can greatly reduce your own carbon footprint and lessen demand on a heavily polluting industry.
Deforestation is a huge side-effect of meat consumption. More animal production requires more feed, which requires more arable land, which means forests have been cut down at an increasing rate. Remember last year when the Amazon forest was burning? Those fires were in part driven by the quest for farmland (Yale's e360 blog has an excellent article about it here). By some estimates, agriculture is responsible for 80% of global deforestation. Forests are vital for environmental health: they act as carbon sinks, prevent erosion, and provide natural resources and habitat. By decreasing our demand for meat, we can help protect these important places.
Sidebar: there is so much to learn about deforestation and mitigating efforts. Many clothing companies, food suppliers, and civic efforts tout their dedication to planting trees. But it's important to know what kind of strategies, goals, and protections underlie these efforts. I highly recommend you read more about it here.
Overfishing is a huge threat to the health of our oceans. By overfishing certain species, we have upset the trophic structure of the ocean's ecosystems, putting the entire balance of the ocean at risk and seriously endangering one of the globe's most important food sources (3 billion people worldwide rely on seafood as a protein source). Sustainable resource management can help protect the oceans, but it requires that we make educated choices about what types of seafood we consume (learn more about better seafood choices here).
In our technologically advanced world, food is often the only tangible daily reminder that we are human animals, not machines. Despite the distance from nature that is created by our screens, our cities, our society, we are still intrinsically and inextricably connected to the health of the world's ecosystems. Rather than see this connection as a burden that gets in the way of 'fun' food, I encourage you to see mealtimes as a ritual reminder that you are in and of this world, a part of a cycle that must be balanced and honored. The health of one of us can only be achieved with the health of all of us.
Ready to Start Cooking?
With restaurants closed and grocery stores somewhat bare, it may seem hard to cobble together interesting meals. But meatless meals are ideally suited to quarantine, as they use common pantry items that you probably have on hand. Below I've collected some favorites, from my trusted list of bloggers and recipe authors. Start here, but feel free to research on your own and find things that appeal to you.Take your time - you're not going anywhere! - and try out some of these great recipes!
30+ Healthy Pantry Recipes, from Love and Lemons
10 Recipes to Make with Chickpeas - really, anything from Alexandra is awesome
Japchae - mmmm...
Let me know what you end up cooking - share your photos on Instagram and tag @postindustry_! I encourage you to otherwise use your social distancing to learn more about these important issues of sustainability - check out the 'Start Here' tab for some of my recommendations.
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