Eating less meat
I basically started doing the same thing a few months ago, more for health than ethical reasons, but whatever inspires people is great. For those of us not living on farms, CSAs are a great way to get lots of locally grown fruits and veggies without spending a ton of money. I can’t wait until my first shipment arrives!
I’ve made a dramatic shift in my diet over the last few weeks: eating almost no meat. (update: thoughts on fish.)
There are plenty of good reasons not to eat meat, including:
- The treatment of the animals is awful. The more you know about industrialized meat production, the less you want to support it. (And it’s not just for cows. Chickens and turkeys aren’t much better, and pigs are probably the worst.)
- High-volume meat production creates a large environmental burden, usually as a result of having to feed the animals so much and figure out what to do with their waste.
- Meat is more calorie-dense than many alternative foods, and red meat in particular is unhealthy to eat frequently. Non-meat-heavy diets can generally be much healthier.
Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food makes a great argument for low-meat diets. (You should really read it regardless of your thoughts on meat. Do you eat? Then it’s relevant to you.)
