Meatless Monday

Meatless Monday is exactly what is sounds like — adopting an entirely plant-based diet one day a week (at the least). Why a plant-based diet? Because going meatless is good for you and great for the planet.

The average American consumes around 193 pounds of beef, pork or chicken a year, roughly ½ pound of meat a day! This high volume has to come from somewhere, and unfortunately most comes from animal agriculture, one of the leading contributors to climate change, habitat destruction, and deforestation. The U.N. Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) attributes 14.5% of global emissions to the world’s livestock farms. To put that in perspective, transportation accounts for only 13 percent.

Eating meat hasn’t always been this problematic. Factory farms generate tons of toxic manure that sits in waste dumps and produces` methane, a greenhouse gas emission 25x more powerful than carbon dioxide. According to the EPA, “a single dairy cow produces about 120 pounds of wet manure per day, which is equivalent to the waste produced by 20–40 people.” And because the livestock are not fed a natural diet, their waste cannot be used as fertilizer.

Together, rapid growth, unsanitary living conditions, and overcrowding cause a host of health problems that are commonly treated with antibiotics. In fact, 80% of antibiotics sold in the U.S. are for livestock. It’s impossible to separate meat consumption from antibiotic resistance, which is on the rise. When we eat meat, we are consuming whatever was placed in or eaten by the animal.

A recent study found that American’s choices to eat less meat has reduced emissions by the equivalent of pollution from 57 million cars — despite population growth of about 9 percent. Even if you’re not ready to give up meat entirely, simply cutting back on the amount of meat you eat per day or per week can add up in huge ways! What steps will you take to reduce your “meat footprint” today?