Happy Meatless Monday
G'morning flexitarians! We took a week off our DrawDown bookclub to incorporate what we've learned. Accidentally last week for dinner we had vegetarian chili and for lunch, spinach and mushroom quesadillas. Without intending to we participated in the global "Meatless Monday" movement, which apparently is a way to fight climate change.
It's still counter-intuitive that livestock emits disproportionate CO2. But a lot of livestock is raised using extra hormones, and ingesting those too often is like pouring gasoline on nascent cancer cell embers. If we're not convinced meat causes climate change, we know vegetables which have antioxidants vacuum up free radicals inside our bodies. And less meat -- or more judicious meat consumption, selecting for quality hormone-free eggs and meat products -- could boost our health and quality of life.
Bon Appetit published 35 Meatless Monday recipes and many ingredient lists include eggs (which don't count as meat. This will be so easy.) Today's fantasy Meatless Monday dinner is Roasted Eggplant Sabich Sandwiches:
So pretty. Hmm prep time for those sandwiches looks a little lengthy - we'll cook that some other time. Tonight's actual Meatless Monday dinner is Trader Joe's vegetarian chili:
Bon Appetit!
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* UPDATE 4pm PST: An emailer asked why it's so counter-intuitive to some that meat contributes to climate change. Great question - a reason we're blogging the DrawDown book as we read it is to show our layman's vantage point while we still have it.
We get a lot of mixed messages:
No on full vegan: my endocrinologist, a vegetarian, advised me to keep animal proteins in my diet, eggs specifically, given my low-normal thyroid condition. I'm not convinced I'll get enough protein from full vegan.
Morality: it was just discovered trees have feelings. If we don't want to hurt animals' feelings, we'll have to abstain from hurting plants'.
Flexitarianism, Meatless Mondays sound like a fun. That's as far as some of us can go :-)
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Further Reading:
Livestock on private lands is legal. An OpEd today says cattle ranchers are using expired public land leases to justify grazing in open spaces. sfgate.com
It's still counter-intuitive that livestock emits disproportionate CO2. But a lot of livestock is raised using extra hormones, and ingesting those too often is like pouring gasoline on nascent cancer cell embers. If we're not convinced meat causes climate change, we know vegetables which have antioxidants vacuum up free radicals inside our bodies. And less meat -- or more judicious meat consumption, selecting for quality hormone-free eggs and meat products -- could boost our health and quality of life.
Bon Appetit published 35 Meatless Monday recipes and many ingredient lists include eggs (which don't count as meat. This will be so easy.) Today's fantasy Meatless Monday dinner is Roasted Eggplant Sabich Sandwiches:
So pretty. Hmm prep time for those sandwiches looks a little lengthy - we'll cook that some other time. Tonight's actual Meatless Monday dinner is Trader Joe's vegetarian chili:
Bon Appetit!
---
* UPDATE 4pm PST: An emailer asked why it's so counter-intuitive to some that meat contributes to climate change. Great question - a reason we're blogging the DrawDown book as we read it is to show our layman's vantage point while we still have it.
We get a lot of mixed messages:
- "livestock consumes excess water, when we have none to waste" (aren't we experiencing floods?)
- "clearing land to raise livestock means cutting down trees which sequester CO2" (makes sense, but isn't livestock better than pavement?)
- "no, the reason cattle and pig livestock contributes to climate change is their feed, it's made from petroleum"
- "livestock feed isn't made from petroleum, but the fertilizer used to grow livestock feed is made from petroleum" (makes sense)
- "the core problem with livestock is methane emissions from cattle and pig digestive tracts" (but that's nature, aren't livestock animals better than cars?)
No on full vegan: my endocrinologist, a vegetarian, advised me to keep animal proteins in my diet, eggs specifically, given my low-normal thyroid condition. I'm not convinced I'll get enough protein from full vegan.
Morality: it was just discovered trees have feelings. If we don't want to hurt animals' feelings, we'll have to abstain from hurting plants'.
Flexitarianism, Meatless Mondays sound like a fun. That's as far as some of us can go :-)
-------------
Further Reading:
Livestock on private lands is legal. An OpEd today says cattle ranchers are using expired public land leases to justify grazing in open spaces. sfgate.com
