Eating Green - Organic Meat or Going Vegetarian ?

There is one area which needs more consideration when we talk about the practice of the Green Living Lifestyle. The question here is not ‘should I eat organic meat?’ but ‘should I eat meat at all?’ This is one of the different between the living concept of being organic and being green. Being organic doesn’t means that you are applying the living concept of being green in your lifestyle. Being organic is part of the being green, but not the vice-versa as I had illustrated in chapter-1. Having meat regardless of organic or non-organic meat is something related to the well-being of the environment.

Evidence of the environmental impact of eating meat is overwhelming. A Japanese study from the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Tsukuda looked at beef production. They found that producing a kilo of beef result in more C02 emission than going for a three-hour drive while leaving all the lights on at home, producing greenhouse gases with a warming potential equivalent of 36.4 kg of CO2. Most of the gas emissions are a result of methane from belching cattle. That’s in addition to the chemicals often used to force pasture ~ 340g of SO2 and 59g of Phosphates are used to produce 1 kilo of beef and if these chemicals run off into river and lake ecosystems can have devastating effects.

In addition, producing 1 pound of beef required 30x more water than producing 1 pound of wheat, 200x more than 1 pound of potato. Producing 1 calories of animal protein uses 10x as much fossil fuel as producing a calorie of vegetable protein. ( You can find out more infos at www.emagazine.com ~ The Case Against Meat, and www.goveg.com , www.vegweb for meat-free recipes).

There are a variety of reasons beyond concern for the environment costs to adopt a green vegetarian lifestyles, it is not just about if the animal food is raised organically or not. The vast tracts of Amazon rain forest that have been cleared in recent decades are used mainly for beef production, either for grazing cattle or for growing soy to feed them. The more demand there are for meat, the more deforestation is needed to create new pasture. Apart from pollution and resource management, there is another ethical issue we need to think about, which related to question of world hunger. According to the British group Vegfarm, a 4-hectar farm can support 60 people growing soy beans, 24 growing wheat, 10 growing corn and only 2 farming cattle.

In Diet for A Small Planet, Frances Moore Lappe tell the reader to imagine sitting down to 225 g steak, and then imagine the room filled with 45~50 people with empty bowls in front of them. The feed cost of the steak is the equivalent to giving each person a bowl of cooked cereal grains. Do think about it.

This article has no intention to ask you to become a vegetarian. it is subject to your judgment for the benefit of your own generation. But if you are intended to, just give it a try by cutting out meat one day a week to start with, doing so within your emotional comfort zone. Don’t try to do changes at once. Baby steps, added together, can take you a long way.

Remark :
Vegetarianism is a lifestyle based on a choice not to consume meat, fish or poultry. Being a vegetarian does not automatically exclude dairy products or eggs from the diet, which is a personal choice. Vegans are a stricter form of vegetarian; they eat no animal flesh or products and abstain from wearing or using products such as leather, silk, wool, lanolin or gelatin. There are dietary vegans who adhere to a strict diet but are amenable to using animal products. If merely based on Green Living Lifestyle concept, Vegans’ diet is the preference choice.

Thanks for being green.
See you on next articles for more green living tips. We take pride in sharing you learn how to go green, trying to make the everyday aspects of our lives greener.
For more green living tips, you can log in to these 2 link :
GreenAngelsPlanet.com & GoGreen3in1 blog

Was this helpful? 0 0 Comments

You're reading Eating Green - Organic Meat or Going Vegetarian ?.