Spare the Meat, Save the Planet?

Yes, it turns out that by cutting meat out of your diet, you could also be cutting down on your carbon footprint. Why? Because simplified vegetarian or vegan diets consist of mainly fruits and vegetables which, as eco-friendly website The Daily Green discusses, take far less resources and nonrenewable energy to produce than meat products do. 

In fact, some die-hard environmentalists have adopted vegetarian diets for this exact reason. This environmental vegetarianism is based on the belief that intensive agriculture, like that which is used for producing meat products, is unsustainable.  

Some of you might be saying "oh well, I'm sure it doesn't make that much of a difference, right?"

Wrong. 

This issue has gotten attention from all the major animal rights groups through various studies. As Claudia H. Deutsch discussed in a 2007 The New York Times article, the groups, while often disagreeing with some aspects of the treatment of animals, have all joined together in this area, saying that raising animals for meat is more harmful to the environment than all the SUV's combined. 

Think this a a bunch of baloney (or, well, soy-protein baloney in this case)?

It turn out that these claims are backed by 2006 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization study, who then issued a report stating that "the livestock business generates more greenhouse gas emission than all forms of transportation combined." And the Environmental Defense Fund has also said that while this issue is not its biggest priority, the EDF is "in agreement on the value of eating less meat."

Here's a little video from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) that helps explain:

So think about, in a world filled with hype about "going green", what easier way than eating less meat? Not only for the environment, but also for the temple that is your body!

But we'll get to that next week...