Did a new years resolution to try and do what I can to lessen climate change. Calculated carbon foot print with a calculator. Concluded main changes needed was to changes required eat less red meat and drive and ride cars less. Try and consume less new things, prefer buying used things. Buying quality items that lasts long instead of cheap buy and throw.
Changing to vegetarian diet and driving less had the biggest impact.
Btw it's not really necessary to consume >only< vegetarian / vegan food. Since couple of months I try and eat vegan meals for one day per week and reduce eating meat to at most 2 times per week. I can gladly say that this is manageable, not a big deal for all of us and doesn't require so much strictness ( IMO ). Nevertheless the benefit for the environment is not as big than being a vegan / vegetarian, but still bigger than eating meat 7 days per week.
Side topic, but meat these days is quite expensive if you really take it from a quality manufacturer ( Bio meat in Germany costs 3 times more than the "regular" one ). You can imagine what kind of meat you get if you don't have to dig deep into your pocket for a meal.
As a cooking enthusiast I struggle with finding vegetarian recipes that are appealing to me, my wife and kids, even if we’d like to eat more vegetables.
As a “carnivore” or at least omnivore, most dishes feel like they’re either missing some part (i.e. “dinner is just a salad”) or trying to imitate a meat product.
You probably aren't using vegetarian foods with enough fat or protein. Veggie based meat substitutes often have ridiculously low fat contents so I have to add oil to get some umame flavor out of them. Like tofu grind that you might use as a substitute for ground beef is like 5% fat whereas hamburger is 10-20%. Adding some olive oil makes a huge difference.
Legumes like lentils and chickpeas are also very filling, and you can easily make them into amazing curries with very little effort by slightly overcooking the lentils, pan toasting the chickpeas, mixing them together with some coconut milk and whatever spices go with your palate. I like to use curry leaves, garlic, cumin, thai green chiles, salt, and onion as a base. The fat from the coconut milk will nicely improve the texture of the lentils (which have too much protein and fiber relative to fat to have the right texture) and as it cooks down you'll get something akin to a coconut milk korma or a close enough approximation that you can take it from there and just have it with rice or blanched spinach.
Cold turkey could be hard. Try transitioning slowly. As a start, just cook more veggies and load up your plate with them. Roasted broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, etc., can be amazing. You can also substitute less-bad meats (turkey burgers instead of cow, etc.) or try out some of the veg. substitutes.
The biggest takeaway I get from the article is that the average annual food-sourced CO2 emissions is equivalent to driving 6000km. Average car owners in North America do quite a bit more than that annually (and likely in a vehicle that produces much more CO2 per km than the europe-based study would use)
Greenhouse emissions from meat/dairy production (the all chain) in highly efficient meat industries of 1st world countries, are negligible when compared to to other sources. [1]
Even when looking at the global numbers and taking into account countries with less efficient systems, the global total is still less than 15% of all greenhouse emissions. [2]
Also reduced water requirements and longer term perishability for supply chains are huge. These foods are often also affordable by a wider set of the population, further improving supply chain efficiency. Finally, the aggregated benefits in terms of reduced diet-based diseases or chronic conditions that require waste in a variety of ways to systematically treat.
Cows are not bad for the environment. In fact cows can be fed waste products from cereal production (straw), or can graze on land not used for agriculture (sheep are even better for that), which make them useful to squeeze food out of land.
Intensive breeding at larger scale has an environmental impact, same as all human activities at large scale. And eating too much meat may not be great for health.
acd|6 years ago
Changing to vegetarian diet and driving less had the biggest impact.
goalieca|6 years ago
Also, reduce then reuse then recycle in that order.
drinchev|6 years ago
Side topic, but meat these days is quite expensive if you really take it from a quality manufacturer ( Bio meat in Germany costs 3 times more than the "regular" one ). You can imagine what kind of meat you get if you don't have to dig deep into your pocket for a meal.
yummybear|6 years ago
As a “carnivore” or at least omnivore, most dishes feel like they’re either missing some part (i.e. “dinner is just a salad”) or trying to imitate a meat product.
neltnerb|6 years ago
Legumes like lentils and chickpeas are also very filling, and you can easily make them into amazing curries with very little effort by slightly overcooking the lentils, pan toasting the chickpeas, mixing them together with some coconut milk and whatever spices go with your palate. I like to use curry leaves, garlic, cumin, thai green chiles, salt, and onion as a base. The fat from the coconut milk will nicely improve the texture of the lentils (which have too much protein and fiber relative to fat to have the right texture) and as it cooks down you'll get something akin to a coconut milk korma or a close enough approximation that you can take it from there and just have it with rice or blanched spinach.
AgentOrange1234|6 years ago
lonelappde|6 years ago
WalterSear|6 years ago
poloniculmov|6 years ago
mping|6 years ago
john61|6 years ago
SECProto|6 years ago
neltnerb|6 years ago
What a waste. I hope that at least most of it is long haul trucking or something with personal value like a vacation, rather than just commuting.
scythe|6 years ago
wtdata|6 years ago
Even when looking at the global numbers and taking into account countries with less efficient systems, the global total is still less than 15% of all greenhouse emissions. [2]
[1] https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emis...
[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_meat...
superpermutat0r|6 years ago
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hacknat|6 years ago
mlthoughts2018|6 years ago
mytailorisrich|6 years ago
Intensive breeding at larger scale has an environmental impact, same as all human activities at large scale. And eating too much meat may not be great for health.
vinni2|6 years ago