meat – Green Anglicans

March 2 – Meatless Monday

“Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it” Prov 15:17. Many people are choosing to reduce their meat intake for love. For love of our neighbour, love of the planet or love of animals. One way to begin to reduce your meat is to take up Meatless Mondays – what is this all about? Meatless Monday is an international campaign that encourages people to not eat meat on Mondays to improve their health and the health of the planet. It is a simple concept that can make a big difference in your personal health and the health of the planet. Meatless Monday is a practical way for you to make a contribution towards improving your health and life style. It is a great way to taking action against climate change by reducing your carbon footprint and helping to conserve precious environmental resources. Meatless Mondays will require you to replace meat with plant based meals such as vegetables, beans, nuts, soy and etc. Benefits of meatless Mondays Eating less meat improves your health and decreases risks/prevents chances of having; heart disease, diabetes, strokes and cancer Research suggests that eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables with limited amount red meat increases your lifespan/longevity Can help you loose/maintain weight Save money meat is more expensive than plant based food Minimise water usage for farming and agricultural practices Reduce greenhouse gases that are emitted through meat farms Reduce energy consumption from farming Disadvantages of livestock production Livestock production creates more greenhouse gases than the entire transportation sector – which includes all the cars, trucks, planes, and trains in the world Livestock production uses 75% of the earth’s agricultural land Producing ONE quarter-pound beef burger uses 1608 litres of water – enough water to fill 10 bathtubs Producing ONE quarter-pound beef burger uses up enough energy to power an iPhone for 6 months Skipping one serving of beef every Monday for a year saves the equivalent emissions to driving 560 kilometres in a car. Save the planet and yourself, go meatless on Mondays. “Mo’ money = mo’ food = less problems”. Photo by Edgar Castrejon on Unsplash

February 28 – Pledge to Reduce Meat Consumption

Leave a Comment / Fast for the Earth 2020 / Tlou Mpai / February 28, 2020

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. Genesis 1 :29 There is a lot of talk about the need to move away from a meat heavy diet to a more plant based diet. Why is this important? Animal agriculture is the second largest contributor to Green House gases after fossil fuels. It is also a leading cause of deforestation , as well as water and air pollution and is leading to biodiversity loss Animal agriculture puts a heavy strain on the Earth’s overstretched resources. There are 70 billion domestic animals raised every year for human consumption. To do this we are using one third of the planet’s ice-free land surface. Nearly 16 percent of our scarce global freshwater is used to grow livestock. As well as that a third of the production of grain worldwide is used to feed livestock. Unfortunately we are still on an upward trajectory and consumption of meat and dairy products is expected to rise 75% by 2050, due to population growth and an increase in consumption per capita. Cattle are by far the biggest source of emissions from animal agriculture. Producing animal meat is a very inefficient use of resources. It can take up to 10 kg of grain to make 1 Kg of beef. A study has shown that if the average UK household halved its meat consumption, this would cut more emissions that if they cut their car use in half! (Compassion in World Farming) Eating less meat can help slow deforestation. One hectare of Amazon rainforest is lost to cattle ranchers every 18 seconds. In the largest meat-producing state in Brazil livestock production is responsible for vastly more deforestation than soya. In November 2007 the World Cancer Research Fund called for a diet low in red meat, avoidance of processed meats and eating a mainly plant-based diet. So, this Lent, take the pledge to reduce your meat consumption and eat more plant based meals Start from where you are: maybe take on Meat Free Mondays, or go vegetarian during the week, or give up red meat and only eat chicken. Or perhaps you want to take the plunge and become fully vegetarian or even vegan. As long as you are reducing your meat intake, you are helping the planet and your health! https://www.paulmccartney.com/news-blogs/news/meat-free-monday-the-facts https://climatenexus.org/climate-issues/food/animal-agricultures-impact-on-climate-change/

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