It should give me hope to see this in the New York Times:
Re-thinking the Meat Guzzler
(The article is linked in the title)
But there is still so far to go, so much ground to cover, an entire industry to change. Auntie Amy asked in her blog, "why is it so expensive to go green?" It's because we have a nation built upon an industrial food system, which allows for both inexpensive meat and cheaply processed foods. Cattle ranchers who pack their cows into tiny spaces and feed them grain are subsidized, while those who raise theirs on grass rarely are. Food processing is cheap due to the abundance of corn in this country (also due to subsidies), and so it's easy to buy boxed meals.
So the problem is changing what people's ideas of "cheap" are. Yes, your $1.99 per pound chicken breasts are cheap, but what about the cost of the superbugs that develop when we are no longer resistant to antibiotics due to their presence in our meats? What about the cost of irreversible damage to our soils and our watersheds due to manure run-off? What about other things that most people don't even think about, such as a loss of biodiversity due to the lack of diversity in crops being planted these days? What is the true cost of all that? Can you put a price tag on it? I can't.
Yes, it's much more expensive to buy meat that is pasture-raised and antibiotic and hormone growth free. Costs for the producers are higher because they can't squeeze as many animals on to the land. But maybe it's time to pay a little more. Scratch that, it IS time to pay a little more. And if you can't stomach that, then it's time to cut back on your meat consumption. Remember, "Eat food. Not a lot. Mostly plants." Use meat for stirfrys, soups, etc. It doesn't need to be a chunk sitting on your plate.
Trust me, I was never the poster child for "Eat food. Not a lot. Mostly plants." But when you start contemplating the way each bite affects the world, you start to enjoy your carrots. Especially when they're freshly picked and taste like carrot rather than a twig.
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Now playing: Something Corporate - Cavanaugh Park
via FoxyTunes
Monday, January 28, 2008
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1 comment:
I used to think that I needed to eat meat everyday and sometimes every meal. While I was in Thailand my mother was concerned that I wasn't getting enough protein because the amount of meat in their food is a lot less than America. It's funny thinking about it now, now that I don't eat meat. Now that I'm adjusted to not eating meat, when I do eat it, it makes me feel so full! I agree with you it's good to pay the true price of meat, we need to lessen our consumption.
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