In the February 19 issue of Time Magazine, in the article Eat Your Greens, points out that:
- The meal plan of the average American family accounts for 2.8 tons of CO2 emitted annually, compared with 2.2 tons for driving.
- The most efficient way to shrink the carbon footprint of your menu is to eat less meat, especially beef.
- Our food travels from 1,500 to 2,500 miles on average from farm to supermarket, but that journey typically accounts for just 4% of a food’s carbon footprint.
One reason why eating less meat lowers your carbon footprint:
“Raising cattle takes a lot more energy than growing the equivalent amount of grains, fruits or vegetables: most produce requires about 2 calories of fossil-fuel energy to cultivate per 1 calorie of food energy; with beef, the ratio can be as high as 80 to 1.”
Not to mention you are killing animals just so you can fatten your pot belly.
The article doesn’t go as far as actually saying you should be a vegetarian, recommending fish and chicken in addition to all the greenery. Those don’t seem to me any better than beef as something to eat, although I will eat fish from time to time (God I hate myself). They also mention that changing your diet in this way can save more than driving a hybrid which to me is kind of a waste. I’m waiting for the all electric cars instead of investing in a hybrid now. It’s kind of half-assed. It still uses gasoline and many of the same toxic chemicals as a gasoline car would. An improvement, absolutely, but it doesn’t go far enough. Ultimately, hybrids are not the answer. For me this actually works now since my car is out of commission so I share a car with Christina and we hardly do any driving anyway. I have about a two-mile commute to work and the same to the kid’s school and Christina is working form home full-time and I’m doing about the same at this point. So to convert to a hybrid for me won’t save too much but to convert to electric will be well worth it.
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