I love meat. Whether it’s Sunday morning bacon with eggs, a platter of colorful sushi with friends, or a quick sandwich-to-go on the road–meat is easy to get and satisfying to the taste buds and belly. My favorite holiday traditions center around meat: the Easter lamb, Forth-of-July brats and burgers, Thanksgiving turkey, and Christmas goose or ham. I love meat of all types, but–and this is important–I don’t like meat. No, I don’t like it one bit.
Meat, it turns out, is very bad for the planet. The Union of Concerned Scientists asserts that–after fossil fuel vehicles–meat-eating is the second biggest environmental hazard facing earth. Why?
The answer in large part stems from the fact that meat production is such a big industry. It’s estimated that there are more than seventeen billion livestock around the world, that’s three times more farm-raised edible animals than people alive today. At this scale, the meat industry produces 100 million tons of methane each year making the meat industry the largest source of methane released into the atmosphere. This is especially sobering because methane–a greenhouse gas–is (according to Noam Mohr) twenty-one times more powerful at trapping heat energy from the sun that carbon dioxide.
Plus, raising animals is highly resource consumptive. Producing one pound of meat requires sixteen pounds of grain and 2,464 gallons of water (according to the Water Education Foundation). Compare this to the twenty-five gallons of water needed to produce a pound of wheat. Worse, livestock management requires the burning of fossil fuel. David Pimentel of Cornell University calculated that each calorie of feedlot beef protein requires 40 calories of fossil fuel. The Worldwatch Institute tells us fifty-one percent or more of global CO2 emissions comes from animal agriculture. (It’s worth noting that a calorie of soy protein requires only two calories of fossil fuel to make.)
The way I see it, the most significant personal choice I can make to slow global warming and conserve water (not to mention the kindest thing I can do to practice my Buddhist ethic of non-killing) is dramatically curb my meat-eating habits. And here is the moment of true confession: I was a vegetarian for four years, but now I’m more of what you’d call a flexitarian. I do consume the occasional meat dish.
Knowing what I know, why does my behavior not purely reflect my values? First, I find it impossible to maintain a vegetarian diet while living on the sailboat. Island nations have little-to-no soil, so everything islanders eat comes a great distances into their markets. (South of 50 degrees North latitude is where we find the lush soils and rich agricultural traditions one thinks of in the Caribbean). In most of our travels, fresh produce is either non-existent or outrageously expensive. Frozen meat, however, travels well and combines easily with canned goods.
There are other reasons I eat meat. I am sensitive to the opinion of others; it whittles away at my firm-line enthusiasm. I see disappointment in dinner guests’ eyes when they realized they are in for a night of vegetarian cuisine. Conversely, I feel selfish when someone hosts me in their home, then frets about what to serve. I cringe at moans from family members when holiday favorites are substituted for more planet-friendly choices. For these reasons, I walk a middle meat-eating path: I almost always feed myself and my family a vegetarian diet.
If each of us were to dramatically reduce our meat consumption to, say, one meal a week, it would transform the climate emergency. So, to encourage you along the middle meat-eating path, I’d like to share one of my most favorite, easy to make, super satisfying sandwich combinations. This is a recipe for change. You’ll find the sandwich has the right sloppiness and textures–chewy bread, crisp lettuce, wet tomato slices. Green olives add bursts of salt, black olives add savory, quartered artichokes give the tongue a surprise, and two kinds of cheese deliver protein and flavor. Enjoy–H
Vegetarian Italian Sub
6″ Baguette
Vinegar and Oil Dressing
2 slices Provolone Cheese
Shredded Lettuce
1/4 cup Black and Green Olives, sliced
1 canned artichoke, quartered
1/2 tomato, sliced
1 Green Onion, chopped
2 slices Swiss Cheese
Cut the baguette in half lengthwise and open. Drizzle dressing liberally onto both sides of the bread. Place provolone slices on one half, swiss slices on the other. Layer all other ingredients down the middle. Serves One.
