Last year I wrote a blog post called My Mostly Plant-Based Diet where in the end I wrote ” I am not trying to convince anyone to go plant based”. Now I’ve had another 12 months to live through the benefits of mostly plant-based diet. So before you read any further, this is the post where I am trying to convince you to reduce your meat eating habits. Not to be a vegan, but more plant orientated bipedal being. Fair?
And yes, it’s going to get heavy, perhaps evangelical, definitely emotional. You might feel weird feelings towards me after the reading this. Some of those weird feelings might be feelings of hate and loathing. Or maybe you’ll walk away enlightened. Yeah, that’d be cool.
Or, maybe, once it’s all said and done, you will hate my guts (and would like to eat them).
Why plant-based and not vegan or vegetarian?
As I said in my last year’s post, people love to put you in the box and judge your whole self based on the one thing you do:
“Right wing? You must love guns.”
“Left wing? I bet you’re pro immigration.”
“Vegan? You must love tofu. And you probably hate using deodorant. Is that weed?”
Now, I don’t know about you but I hate being in a box. And rarely eating meat and not being vegan gets people super confused. When my answer to “are you vegan” is somewhat elaborate, “no, but I eat mostly plant-based”, it’s hard for most to grasp. What confuses people even more is that, although I avoid most clothes with animal products I still own a pair of leather boots. I couldn’t bare the idea of buying more shoes made out of plastic.
So how do make decisions on whether I eat or don’t eat meat? Based on few things:
Who cooked the meat
Mostly this doesn’t make any difference to my decision and I still stick to my plant-based eating. But, I can think of situations where I would rather eat what’s being offered instead of being stubborn about my ways: if I’d be visiting a foreign country and would be invited for a meal by a family for whom having meat would be luxury. Say they kill their only chicken to delight a foreigner with a fabulous meal. To sit at that table going “I really value the effort you are putting up because I am visiting, but unfortunately I can’t eat any of that, because I am vegan.”
Yeah, that would be elitist, and dickish.
The situation I am in
My wife orders a meat dish and doesn’t finish it. I rather eat what’s left on her plate than throw it away. I mean, the animal is dead already. I don’t want it to die just so it could end up in the garbage bin. By eating the leftovers I feel like I respect the animals death more than by just chucking it out.
Where did the meat come from
I have an issue with factory farming, both in terms of how animals get treated and what the farming does for the environment. So unless for some super-special circumstances (as above), I won’t eat meat that factory farmed using current operating standards.
But I have no issue occasionally eating wild meat that someone hunted. You go to the woods and kill an animal to eat. And the whole animal is used to either produce food, or other things, such as a carpet. Just so everything about the animal gets used. And when I say occasionally, I really mean super special occasions. Maybe once every year or two. Depending on how often your life is special and how many hunters you know.
Yeah I know, save me from the evils of hunting. I said mostly-plant based. It’s easier to convince 100 people to reduce their meat consumption that it is to make one hardcore vegan. That’s math.
Environmental impact of eating meat vs plant-based
The cost of producing meat
According to UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) raising livestock for meat, dairy and eggs utilises 70 percent of the world’s agricultural land, generating 14.5 percent of the greenhouse gases. In comparison, transportation generates 14 percent of the world’s greenhouse emission. Even worse, livestock generates methane which is worse than carbon dioxide that transportation emits.
And as livestock needs land to live on we can’t ignore the deforestation cows, sheep and whatnot need.
The cost of growing plants
The negatives of wheat, corn, nut and soy production
But not all plant-based eating is great for the environment either. And it often gets ignored because so much of the hype is on the havoc of livestock.
How to eat plant-based and not add to the environmental catastrophe happening today
Animal welfare
How commercial meat production works
The overall happiness of the animal
Empathy.
Sustainable hunting for food
How about seafood?
Plant-based diet and health
The negative effects of eating meat
The positive effects of eating meat
What to look out for when not eating meat