In case you missed it, October is National Vegetarian Month. Daryl Hannah, Claudia Schiffer and Brooke Shields are all vegetarians (so was Albert Einstein - I thought that was interesting). What does this have to do with going green you might ask...well, quite a bit. 18% of total greenhouse gases, 37% of methane gases and 65% of nitrous oxide gases come from animal production. In terms of all the things we buy, meat has the largest impact on energy use, water use and land disruption (thank goodness dresses are not at the top of this list).In Australia, we eat 110 kg of meat per person every year and globally meat consumption is on the rise (between 2% and 4% per annum). The Australian Conservation Foundation estimates that if we cut out one serve of meat per week we would save 10,000 litres of water and reduce greenhouse gas by 300 kg or 6,000 Black Balloons per year. (See my post http://littlegreenstilettos.blogspot.com/2008/09/little-black-balloon.html).
In addition to the environmental impact there are also questions around the ethics of how we treat animals particularly the factory farming of animals that make up the majority of what we eat. I will not go into detail here but visit http://www.voiceless.org.au/ if you are interested or have a read of Skinny Bitch for a girly girl take on being a vegetarian.
Now, total vegetarianism would not go down well in my family, but we are taking steps to reduce our meat consumption. I have been meat and chicken free this last month (thanks to my husband for loving every vegetarian dinner we have had) and the kids are having one vegetarian meal one night a week (pizza counts). I also buy free range and organic meat which is better for us anyway. Plus I am loving trying new recipes. Check out my yummy friend's blog, Munch and Nibble (http://munchandnibble.blogspot.com/search/label/Salad), especially Suzie's lentil recipe.
Anyone want to Veg Out with me? xxx
Source: Australian Conservation Foundation, WorldWatch Institute, TreeHugger
3 comments:
Scary stats... I'm on a "make leftovers yummy" mission... I will share my ideas with you soon!.. but the thing I am finding is that, often the left overs and bits-n-pieces in your fridge are veges, so lots of my ideas for leftover dinners are vegetarian. I knew it was a good thing to throw out less food, but I didn't realise how climate-friendly it was to subsequently eat less meat! Jen xxx
Thanks for the endorsement, and I will be on the lookout for more vegetarian recipes for you. Re leftovers - let your freezer be your friend! Freezing leftovers not only cuts waste, it lets you have a night out of the kitchen now and then as well. Gotta be a good thing. XX
Thanks Suzie and Jen....would love some more veg recipes, especially for the kids (pizza, baked beans and mac and cheese are about as far as I got).
Pattyxxx
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