Meatless Mondays

If someone had told me a year ago that I would be tasting something made of crickets, I would have gagged. Now, I have just placed an order for a pack of granola bars that are made, in fact, with cricket flour. Why would someone be possessed enough to eat the creepy crawlies that give us nightmares?

Climate Change.

You don’t get the connection? Let me explain.

Global hunger is a prevalent issue, and it is worsened by climate change and population growth. With the rate of population growth as high (and continuously growing) as it is to date, we cannot continue to use resources the same way that we always have. We have a lack of food security across the world, and more people also means more hungry people.  Climate change makes producing food even harder as it causes erratic weather patterns unsuitable for growing crops. It’s a never ending cycle because producing food leads to producing emissions which worsens climate change which then makes it harder to produce more food.

Confusing, right? Less harmful methods of producing food, such as eating crickets, could help break this cycle

Insects are sustainable and a good source of protein; in developing countries where meat is not readily available, insects make a good replacement. But don’t worry. I am not advocating that everyone should run outside right now with a net and go scoop up some crickets.

One thing that could also help break the cycle is cutting down on meat. As stated above, climate change makes the food problem harder to solve, but producing food worsens climate change. Approximately 40 calories of fossil fuel energy go into every calorie of beef produced, whereas 2.2 calories are needed to produce one calorie of plant-based protein. The energy measured here is every emission caused from farm to fork. This includes the energy used to slaughter the animals, cut the beef, package it in factories, and then transport it to grocery stores. That is a 37.8 calorie difference between plants and meat! Think about what saving that energy means for climate change. To really emphasize this difference, one-fifth of the man-made greenhouse gas emissions are generated by the meat industry.

In addition, it has been measured that about 1/3 of all food calories produced go into feeding livestock. If the demand for meat decreases, the amount of land necessary for cattle decreases, and the amount of land available for feeding more people increases. Raising livestock leads to soil erosion, along with overgrazed land that can never be reused for farming. Livestock also contribute to eutrophication, the excess of nutrients running into water causing algae blooms. Overall, meat productions not a sustainable practice, so cutting down even just a little can go a long way.

There is an interesting movement that has been started that can change the trajectory that we care on. As the individual people who make up the population of this globe, I urge each and every one of you to help in spreading the practice of Meatless Mondays.

Studies have indicated that if a majority of the population were to opt out of meat for one day a week year round, not only would this largely help with the food security problem, but it would help with global health, sustainable consumption, water shortages, and climate change as well. For example, it is estimated that somewhere between 1,800 and 2,500 gallons of water go into a single pound of beef (between raising the cattle, preparing the meat, and transportation) whereas tofu requires only 220 gallons of water per pound. Cutting down on the meat produced could save water along with energy and land. All of these environmental issues are tied into one another, so it is amazing that such a small and simple practice can actually make a significant difference.

What we eat and what we put into our bodies is one privilege we have in the developed world. So many people in developing countries eat only what they can scrounge up and often are lucky to find anything at all.

We don’t all have to start eating crickets, but just stop eating fish, beef, pork, or chicken, one day a week, only 52 days out of a 365 day year, and you can contribute to the change we so desperately need.