Save Energy with "Meatless Monday"

For those of you who could never be a full-time vegetarian, going vegetarian for even one or two meals per week can have a positive impact on your health, grocery bill and the environment.

By decreasing the amount of meat in your diet, you can reduce your cholesterol and saturated fat intake and take a slice out of your grocery bill. As an added bonus, you’ll be “eating green”.

Did you know more than a third of all fossil fuels in the U.S. goes towards animal agriculture? In addition it takes far more energy and limited resources (water and crops) to produce livestock than plant proteins. According to ecologists at Cornell University, “Animal protein production requires more than eight times as much fossil-fuel energy than production of plant protein” and “consumes resources far out of proportion to the yield.” Livestock production accounts for one-fifth of greenhouse gas emissions.

Broiler chickens are said to be the most efficient use of fossil energy, and beef, the least. Chicken production consumes energy in a 4:1 ratio (to protein output), while beef is 54:1. Lamb is 50:1 Turkey 13:1, Pork 17:1 and 26:1 for eggs.

With water becoming more and more a limited resource, it’s important to note that grain-fed beef production takes a whopping 43,000 liters of water for every ONE kilogram of food produced. Chickens, again, is substantially less at 3,500 liters, and legumes and grains require the least water, with soybeans: 2,000 liters per kg; rice, 1,912L; wheat, 900L; and potatoes only 500 liters.

More meaty facts:

• More than half the U.S. grain and nearly 40 percent of world grain is being fed to livestock rather than being consumed directly by humans.
  
• The billions of livestock animals in the United States consume five times as much grain as is consumed directly by the entire American population.
  
• For every kilogram of high-quality animal protein produced, livestock are fed nearly 6 kg of plant protein.
  
• On average, animal protein production in the U.S. requires 28 kilocalories (kcal) for every kcal of protein produced for human consumption.

Some ideas for delicious meatless meals:

Vegetarian Chili

Chickpea Curry or Channa Masala (link)

Lentil soup

Tofu Stir-fry

From "Livestock Production: Energy Inputs and the Environment" by David Pimentel
Read the Cornell article at: http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/aug97/livestock.hrs.html

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