Something that has really interested me recently is vegetarianism and its relation to sustainability. Freshman year of high school I tried to be a vegetarian, but it only lasted about two weeks. Now, I only really eat chicken or turkey due to preference.
Becoming a vegetarian is one definite way to help the environment – even just cutting down your meat intake can have a positive effect on the environment! According to lettuceleaf.org, “the livestock industry is one of the biggest contributors to environmental degradation worldwide” (lettuceleaf).
From the Official Blog of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “There are a variety of different environmental impacts that occur due to the production of meat:- Air pollution due to dust and liquid manures.
- Fossil fuels, water, and land over-use
- Rainforest erosion and destruction for pasture land
- Water contamination due to animal waste
- Grain and corn grown for animal feed instead of addressing world hunger” (Reising).
As we can see, the production of meat is not very earth-friendly, even if it it’s produced organically. I’m not at all trying to push vegetarianism on anyone because I myself am not one, but I think that it’s important to look at all aspects of food sustainability. Also, as I posted before, our meat, although it’s mandatory that is inspected, doesn’t have to receive a grade. If you’re not convinced that vegetarianism can help the earth – at least you can see that it can possibly help your body.
One of my goals of this blog was to strongly reduce my intake of meat in order to live a more sustainable life, and I think I’ve done a very good job at that, to be honest, I’m not very good at cooking – and I definitely am not good at cooking meat, so it has not been much of a challenge for me to reduce my intake. The one meat though that I love and could probably never give up fully is turkey. Turkey is one of the staples in my diet and try as I might, I just don’t think I could give it up.
Best Wishes!
Julia
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