Meatless Mondays

I've done a decent amount of reading surrounding the horrifying state of the US food industry. I've been thoroughly disgusted by everything relating to the production of meat and frightened by my total ignorance of issues facing American farmers. As summarized by Laura Miller in this Salon.com article "In brief, our current meat-heavy system of food production is unsustainable, a waste of resources and a source of pollution in the form of pesticides and hormones as well as methane gas from livestock manure. Our over reliance on a few big crops (especially corn and soy) depletes the soil, demanding the use of ever greater quantities of chemical fertilizers, whose manufacture requires massive amounts of fossil fuel. The foods produced by agribusiness, in the form of highly processed flours, fats and -- above all -- high-fructose corn syrup, have little nutritional value and foster a host of health problems, including diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure as well as obesity. The industries fabricating these foods have bought and paid for American politicians and government agencies, costing taxpayers billions of dollars per year in subsidies and other benefits paid to businesses who profit while eroding the public's health."

But that doesn't mean I'm willing to totally give up a good bacon cheeseburger...

So, part of my 2010 goals (coming soon) involve challenging myself to eat better and follow Michael Pollen's rule to "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants". This is a two fold challenge to improve my own health (ie: stop being a fat ass) and do my part to help the environment. Since it's not in my current budget to go totally organic, I'm starting with baby steps.

All advocates agree that reducing the consumption of meat and animal products is the easiest and most effective way to lessen my impact on the system. It has the added benefit of being better for my health. While my co-worker has been following Mark Bittman's idea of reducing his animal product consumption to just one meal a day, I can't realistically see myself giving up milk on cereal, yogurt with granola, or the occasional eggs for breakfast.

So I've decided to start by reducing my overall consumption of meat in conjunction to going totally vegetarian at least once a week, specifically Mondays. I'm also going to push myself to shop more at local Farmer's Markets and try and eat more things in season.

If you are interested in learning more, be sure to pick up Michael Pollen's books Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, and Mark Bittman's Food Matters. If you're too busy to read, Netflix yourself a copy of Food Inc. The images of the chicken farms and cattle yards should be enough to shock yourself into action.