Law Students

meat guzzling

By Andrea

The New York Times has an article today, "Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler," that is so good I demand you read it. It is a greatest-hits version of every single reason I have to no longer eat meat, and believe me, those Chili's ribs commercials still get me going sometimes.

They even include a couple of Dan's and my personal things regarding vegetarianism; his is a dream of "meat without feet," or artificially grown tissue to be eaten as a luxury good. Mine is refuting the constant myth that veggies are experiencing some dire protein deficiency:

Americans are downing close to 200 pounds of meat, poultry and fish per capita per year (dairy and eggs are separate, and hardly insignificant), an increase of 50 pounds per person from 50 years ago. We each consume something like 110 grams of protein a day, about twice the federal government?s recommended allowance; of that, about 75 grams come from animal protein. (The recommended level is itself considered by many dietary experts to be higher than it needs to be.) It?s likely that most of us would do just fine on around 30 grams of protein a day, virtually all of it from plant sources.

But the bottom line is this:

If price spikes don?t change eating habits, perhaps the combination of deforestation, pollution, climate change, starvation, heart disease and animal cruelty will gradually encourage the simple daily act of eating more plants and fewer animals.

Word.

Full post as published by Peanut Butter Burrito on January 27, 2008 (boomark / email).