Meatless Mondays

            I would like to take a moment to think about food. I would like for us to think for a moment about what it takes in order for us to have food at all. I want you to know that we live in a world where three million children die every year of malnutrition while forty percent of the food ready for harvest in the U.S. alone never gets eaten. Outraged? I hope so.
            There is an environmental cost to our “all you can eat” mentality as well. Methane gas from cow flatulence contributes just as much to climate change as cars and trucks. We raise all these cows to keep up with our insatiable appetite for meat and dairy. These cows are fed mostly wheat which is not a natural part of their diet. That wheat which first has to be grown and harvested and which ends up feeding more cows than people, combined with the space required to raise livestock means there is less space available to grow those fruit and vegetable crops which end up going to waste anyway.
            I can’t see myself going vegan or back to my vegetarianism, but I wholeheartedly support people that choose to. I have decided not eliminate meat entirely from my diet because I don’t want to inconvenience other people who are doing the favor of cooking for me. I want to share food that I love with people I love. I want to participate fully in Thanksgiving and Christmas meals with my family.
            At the same time I try to remind myself from time to time of the effects our preferences have on the world around us. That’s why I try to participate in “meatless Mondays” (Or Thursdays, or Fridays depending on how my week is going). A lot of people reducing their consumption of meat a little bit would do a lot more for the environment than a few people going vegan.
          -Josane Cumandala
Sources:
End Hunger
WFP Hunger Statistics
Cows and Climate Change
Image Source