At the start of the year I decided to start reducing my beef consumption. I wanted to challenge myself and see if I can cut back to once a month. I have been completing this new goal now for the last year and some of my readers have been wondering how it’s going?
This is now a permanent change in my lifestyle. I used to eat beef very often (at least once a week!) Over the last 12 months, I have found beef substitute products that I really like and experimented with recipes that I have swapped into my rotation.
My environmental impact:
- On average a 1/4 pound of beef creates 8lbs of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGE)
- An mature tree processes 48 lbs of GHGE per year
- I swapped beef for both less carbon intensive meat (like chicken) and totally meatless foods (like chickpeas)
- Over the course of the year I did the work of 7 trees in carbon savings
Here is what works :
- Eat more meatless dishes
- Use substitute meats
- Switch to less carbon intensive meat (pork, chicken, seafood, and turkey)
What makes this change doable? The hardest part about introducing dietary restrictions, is that they limit my ability to socialize. This change is not so restrictive that you can still engage in social events with basically no changes. In fact, I have found that most of the time my friends don’t even know that I have changed my diet.
If you are interested in finding out the amount of carbon you can save from making this switch yourself sign up here
Check out my other posts for more ways to help the planet:
