Veggies Not Veal ULM, MT--Our trip to Timeless Seeds reminded me how much I dislike lentils. I fully accept the statistic Dave Oien, our tour guide, gave us that Americans on average only eat four ounces of lentils in a year. I don’t think I’ve even had four ounces in the last four years. Dave was wrong about how much meat people consume, however. He said it was 195 pounds per year. It’s actually closer to 270 pounds. To produce a quarter-pound burger, it takes 74.5 square feet of land and 52.8 gallons of water for both the animal and the feed crops. Comparatively, 4000 feet is enough to sustain one person on a vegetarian diet for a year, not to mention that plants don’t produce methane like the source of the burger does. I want to be clear that I am not promoting a vegetarian lifestyle. I like steak too much for that. But, simply cutting back on meat intake can reduce carbon footprint from an average 15.8 pounds per day to 10.3, not to mention less meat means less water and land used in the process, as there isn’t that proverbial middle man of feed crops, as the crops in this case are the food. I’m not going vegetarian any time soon, nor do I plan on liking lentils. Still, I think I could give up meat once a week if it shrunk my impact on the planet. In the long run it might not mean much, but it’s better than nothing. -Delaney Photo by Timeless Natural Food
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