Robin Scher,
AlterNet.org
February 2018
One person's meat-eating can make a bigger difference than you think.
One of my resolutions this year is to eat less meat. As a lifelong
carnivore, this task has already proven to be easier said than done. The
major challenge comes down to changing my habits. After years of enjoying
bacon with my eggs for breakfast, I now associate its comforting greasy
taste with the feeling of fullness. So how do I—and others like me—overcome
this obstacle? One big challenge is finding a way to stay motivated.
Enter the Meat Blitz-Calculator.
Major reasons for cutting down on meat have to do with the health,
environmental and animal welfare impact of this dietary choice. It may be
easy to understand the negative consequences meat-eating has for your heart,
the climate or animals on factory farms, but it's another matter when it
comes to relating these impacts directly to your own consumption habits.
This is where the
Meat Blitz-Calculator comes in.
The first question the calculator asks is whether you eat meat. If you
answer yes, the calculator displays three predetermined average values for
the amount of poultry, pork and beef in ounces you consume in a week. These
figures—based on information taken from a USDA database—represent the
national average for Americans and can be adjusted accordingly. The
calculator then asks you to fill in what percentage of meat you would be
willing to replace with vegetarian food in your diet.
This is where things get interesting. Based on further USDA statistics, the
calculator displays the direct impact your dietary decision could have over
the course of a decade. This information comes in two parts. The first set
of figures shows how much water, CO2 and antibiotics would be spared by
committing to your change in diet. The calculator also displays an
infographic that represents the number of pigs, cows and chickens you would
save from the slaughtering block.
What difference can this make to your habits, you may wonder? It comes down
to shifting perspectives. Using the averages of the calculator, I committed
to a 60 percent reduction over the next decade. By crunching the numbers,
the calculator revealed the full impact my dietary decision could have on
both my own wellbeing as well as the environment and animals (the latter two
often require an imaginative leap that our stomachs—and cognitive
dissonance—help us overlook).
Now the next time I'm tempted to eat a burger or a steak, I will be able to
picture the cumulative impact of my decision. It's easy enough to dismiss
the choices we make on a daily basis, but it becomes a lot harder when you
start to consider the difference your decisions alone can make over a long
period of time.
In order to do something I don’t want to do, I need a good incentive.
Ignorance might be bliss, but knowledge is power. Now that I understand the
full impact of what I decide to eat for every meal, it has become a lot
easier to avoid temptation. This change in behavior may not seem significant
at first, but as the calculator helped me to realize, every little bit
counts.
Return to Environmental Articles
Read more at The Meat and Dairy Industries