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Beef. It's What's Killing the Planet. [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-07-22

Believe it or not, this is meant to be a good news story. Amidst all of the horrifying climate change news out there right now, there is something small and relatively easy we can all do to help, and that is (drumroll please):

EAT LESS BEEF!

It doesn’t have to be none. It doesn’t even have to be next to none. It just has to be LESS. Eating less beef is more impactful than using less water or using less fossil fuel. Yet hardly anyone is considering it as an alternative.

The NYT published an article last may about where exactly the water from the Colorado river goes. I strongly encourage you to read it if you can. Their graphic shows these striking facts:

--Residential, commercial and industrial use totals 20%--12% of which is residential

--Wheat, barley, corn and cotton total up to 15%

--ALL other crops total 7%

--A whopping 79% of the water goes towards agricultural use.

--55% (of the total) goes towards growing agricultural feed (just 1% to livestock watering)

This goes to show—even if all of the millions of people that use water from the Colorado river gave up using water completely, only 12% would be saved.

So many of us (myself included) go out of our way to take short showers, reduce watering our yards, fix leaks, etc.. That’s great and we should keep doing that. But even if we gave up using ALL water, we wouldn’t be making as much of a difference as we would by consuming less red meat.

(Here’s a scholarly article on the subject for those interested)

Just today the NYT published an article about the greenhouse gas impact of beef. It states, among other things, that

If meat eaters in the United Kingdom who consumed more than 3.5 ounces of a meat a day (slightly less than the size of a quarter pound burger) cut their intake to less than 1.7 ounces a day (roughly the amount of a single McDonald’s meat patty) it would be the equivalent of taking 8 millions cars off the road

The fast food industry is getting away with murder—of the planet. McDonald’s alone is responsible for a huge portion of the damage:

The staggering volume of meat requires the company and its suppliers to slaughter north of 7 million cattle, according to some estimations, and that comes at a steep cost to the environment: the more than 53m metric tons of greenhouse gas McDonald’s produced in 2019 exceeds several European nations’ emissions

Fast food is unsustainable in so many ways: water, greenhouse gas emissions, and the amount of single-use packaging it takes up is staggering. But perhaps the worst effect it has is making it so cheap—and thus tempting—to do these things. Meanwhile the true long-term effects on the environment are hidden from the consumer.

Besides just spreading the word, there are other things we as a society could do to discourage beef consumption. We could make it harder to get beef: tax producers and tax the product itself. We could slap beef producers and feed growers with regulations to limit their environmental impact. But it would be far better if we all just reduced our demand. With only 4.2% of the world’s population, the U.S. consumes 21% of the world’s beef production. That spells opportunity! If we made widespread changes here, we would have more impact than a country that doesn’t eat a lot to begin with.

Eating less beef is a relatively easy way to address climate change, and I’m not sure why more people aren’t talking about it. We’re facing a serious planetary crisis, and we’re not even having the discussion? Eating less beef is easy, better for you, and a way to make real change. Let’s face it: there is a lot of fantastic food in the world that requires no beef. It’s also easy to use recipes that use beef or meat flavoring, or just a little meat for flavor instead of an entire chunk of it. Feel free to post your favorite beef-free recipe; here’s my favorite chili recipe that just happens to have no beef:

OSCARSMOM’S CHILI

1 lb ground turkey, or meat substitute of choice

2 sweet red peppers, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 4 oz can chopped green chilies

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

3 cans (15 oz) black beans and/or pinto beans or beans of choice, rinsed and drained (or use prepared dried beans)

3-4 tomatoes, chopped or 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes

1 oz semisweet chocolate (secret ingredient!)

2-3 c chicken broth

Sale and pepper to taste​​​​​​​

Saute onions and peppers in olive oil. Add meat and saute 8-10 more min. Add remaining ingredients; add enough broth to cover. Bring to boiland simmer 45-60 min or til beans are at desired consistency.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/22/2182630/-Beef-It-s-What-s-Killing-the-Planet

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