This article is about a month old now, but Kathy Freston wrote a really thought provoking article on how what we eat can have a bigger impact on global warming and other environmental issues than the car we drive.
For those people living outside of the US, or perhaps North America, a Prius is a hybrid electric car marketed by Toyota. Together with other hybrid cars and light trucks, they have become popular among people who want to drive a more fuel efficient car.
In the US more petroleum products are consumed each year producing food than by private cars. In addition, a stunning amount of water is consumed and vast quantities of chemicals and animal wastes are released into the environment. This is primarily because of the centralized food distribution and processing system that by now feeds almost everyone living in a developed country. Of course these problems are magnified in the context of meat production, because first crops have to be grown for animal feed, then the animals have to be raised, and the amount of feed they consume is enormous when compared to the meat produced.
Almost all of these problems are avoided when we eat foods that are organically and locally produced. If we eat in-season vegetables we grow ourselves or buy from a local organic farmer, the environmental impact is a tiny fraction of what it is when we buy out-of-season conventionally grown produce shipped in from far away. The same comparison can be made when we buy local, organic and grass fed eggs, meats and dairy products, versus conventional products.
Since most of us will continue to eat conventional food products, one of the most important environmentally friendly choices we can make is by eating fewer meats and other animal products. It can be better for your health too!
I always thought we should just eat more bugs for the protein. Given my cultural background this is not easy for me to get my head around but why not eat those cabbage moth larvea with the broccoli heads? (I haven’t checked if there is a good reason not to by the way.) Back to the beans, limited space, fertilize needed, good fresh or dried, store well, in-breeding, good protein source, what more could you ask in a vegetable? Ah beans.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never been too tempted by the cabbage moth larvae in the broccoli heads…
I love beans! Also similar legumes like dried peas, lentils and mung beans. These all have the same advantages you mention. Very versatile crops.
The Ottawa Gardener might be interested in this from Fukuoka’s ‘One Straw Revolution’ –
“Among wild foods insects are often overlooked. During the war, when I worked at the research center, I was assigned to determine what insects in Southeast Asia could be eaten. When I investigated this matter, I was amazed to discover that almost any insect is edible. For example, no one would think that lice or fleas could be of any use at all, but lice, ground up and eaten with winter grain, are a remedy for epilepsy, and fleas are a medicine for frostbite. All insect larvae are quite edible, but they must be alive. Poring over the old texts, I found stories having to do with “delicacies” prepared from maggots from the outhouse, and the flavour of the familiar silkworm was said to be exquisite beyond compare. Even moths, if you shake the powder off their wings first, are very tasty. So, whether from the standpoint of flavour or from the standpoint of health, many things which people consider repulsive arc actually quite tasty and also good for the human body.”
I’ve only consumed caterpillars by accident when I wasn’t wearing my glasses while preparing dinner, but Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall has featured supper dishes with wood lice and other such garden delights. Go ahead and try it, some night when you’re doing dinner for one.
I must admit my reason for going vegetarian 16 years ago was that I’m soppy about animals, but this is another very valid reason.
Ottawa Gardener’s comment gave me a good laugh out loud. I do take it as a positive sign when I find caterpillars in broccoli heads (if it’s good enough for the caterpillar it’s good enough for me) but nope … I draw the line right there.
I am not vegetarian, but I try very hard to limit the amount of meat we eat, and to vary it. No mono-culture meat eating here!
If you really want to cut down on the quantity of meat you consume, just try buying organic/biodynamic.
It works immediately – the cost makes you think twice about serving portions that are bigger than necessary and the product is humanely raised.
Although, that said … whether or not the extra food miles make it worth buying organically is another story. I have a butcher nearby who charges almost as much as organic meat, claims his meat is free of hormone/antibiotics and buys only from one farm. He’s my first choice.