Reducing climate change impacts one piece of meat at a time

I grew up in a Taoist society; even though I never understood the religion that well and was never really “religious”.  For a child, it was just part of our culture - we pray so many times a year, especially during Gods’ birthdays, and we (try to) eat vegetarian food on 1st and 15th of each lunar month.  Why two days a month?  I think it’s because most people can’t give up meat and just be a vegetarian…  But being a vegetarian is a good thing, for Taoist it’s to spare lives (of animals).  Now, there’re other reasons to reduce meat consumption!  It’s hard to go cold turkey with meat, but it is not that hard to reduce meat intake - one meal at a time.  Like Earth Hour, it could be something that we participate once a year to once every few months to once a month to more often!  

This is a great article by  Kathy Freston on Huffington Post with very interesting stats about the startling effects of going vegetarian for Just One Day. The stats are for US only.  I assume that the stats is based on the total population of approximately 300 Million.  Canada has roughly 10% of the US population, so it’s easy to do the math:

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would save:

• 100 billion gallons of water, enough to supply all the homes in New England for almost 4 months;
• 1.5 billion pounds of crops otherwise fed to livestock, enough to feed the state of New Mexico for more than a year;
• 70 million gallons of gas — enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined with plenty to spare;
• 3 million acres of land, an area more than twice the size of Delaware;
• 33 tons of antibiotics.

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would prevent:

• Greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 1.2 million tons of CO2, as much as produced by all of France;
• 3 million tons of soil erosion and $70 million in resulting economic damages;
• 4.5 million tons of animal excrement;
• Almost 7 tons of ammonia emissions, a major air pollutant.

There’re more stats on the original article:

• if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the CO2 equivalent savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of U.S. roads; and
•  switching from standard American diet to a vegan diet is more effective in the fight against global warming than switching from a standard American car to a hybrid.

I propose to establish “vegetarian days” like the Taoists to reflect on our behaviour to the earth and reduce climate change impacts one meal at a time.  What do you say?

4 Comments

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  By Jay, April 6, 2009 @ 11:37 am

  I don’t know how the math was done, but 100 billion gallons of water for 1 day of vegetarian food doesn’t sound right. That’s 100/0.3=333 gallons of water per person in the US (population ~ 0.3 billion). How’s that possible that 1 lb. (assuming one eats 1 lb. of meat per day) of meat would take more than 300 gallons of water? I think the author did not divide this number by the days needed to produce the meat.

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  By flo, April 6, 2009 @ 5:11 pm

  Hey Jay - the numbers do seem extraordinary.. . I did a quick research and found numbers similar to what was reported. Actually, for 1 lb of beef, around 2500 gallons of water is required! See this link and some quotes below:

  Water required to produce 1 pound of U.S. beef, according to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association: 441 gallons —”Myths and Facts about Beef Production: Water Use” National Cattlemen’s Beef Association

  Water required to produce 1 pound of U.S. beef , according to Dr. Georg Borgstrom, Chairman of the Food, Science and Human Nutrition Department of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University: 2,500 gallons — “Impacts on Demand for and Quality of Land and Water”

  Water required to produce 1 pound of California beef, according to the Water Education Foundation: 2,464 gallons —”Water Inputs in California Food Production”

  Water required to produce 1 pound of California beef , according to the Soil and Water specialists, University of California Agricultural Extension, working with livestock farm advisors: 5,214 gallons —Soil and Water

  So, let’s use 2500 gallons as a basis: to save 100 billion gallons saved per day, and assuming this is all from beef, that means each US citizen eats 0.13lb or 59.8g beef a day. Pretty crazy, isn’t it?!

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  By Tracy, April 6, 2009 @ 7:53 pm

  The vegetarian concept is out in Taiwan too, however, not many followers. Most is coz the announcement they claim is weak and too religous.
  I tried to do that with Nat, not only for participating the eco earth, but also for his health reason. But he is such a meat-eater =( Any tip u heard?

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  By flo, April 6, 2009 @ 8:08 pm

  one day a month is not that difficult bah? Or start with one meal each month?? I think that would be OK - try some “meaty” veggies like mushrooms, and go for heavy flavours to begin with - like thai/indian….
  i think that’d work?!

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