Meat Free Mondays- Livestocks surprising effect on the environment

So, coming from a household with a dad who eats a lot of red meat and a hippy free spirited mother who pretty much only eats vegetables, fish and tofu left me kind of a “unique eater”. As such, every so often I definitely can appreciate a juicy steak or slow roasted beef short ribs that fall off the bone-dripping with succulent flavor from hours of cooking. But, most of the week, I contain my carnivorous cravings for the sake of my body and I eat like a vegetarian.

I just read about this unique idea, Meat Free Mondays, from Gwyneth Paltrows blog or more specifically Paul McCartney and I think it’s an easy thing to implement into your weekly schedule. There is a plethora of amazing veggie recipes at http://www.finecooking.com/ or http://www.foodandwine.com/or you could simply add some beans to your meal, quinoa, tempeh, maybe some tofu, some fish and you would have enough protein to nutritionally leave meat out of your meal and I sware you will feel better after not ingesting animal fat :)

More and more sustainability is becoming increasingly important. So to do your bit to create a more sustainable environment this week try and have a Meat Free Monday. Instead of just recycling, driving hybrid cars, turning off your lights, etc not eating meat for one day a week can actually have surprisingly impressive results.

In 2006, the UN issued a report which stated that the "livestock industry as a whole produced more emissions than the whole transport sector put together".

Here are some more interesting facts that you might want to know about the effects of raising lifestock from the UN:

- The Livestock industry produces gases that are extremely dangerous to the future of our environment

-The 2 main gases, methane and nitrous oxide are considered to be more harmful than CO2 (methane is 21 times more powerful than CO2 and Nitrous Oxide is 310 time more powerful than CO2) so the data suggests that this is causing a highly dangerous situation for our planet and our future

-Methane remains in the air for 9 to 15 years; Nitrous Oxide for 114 years on average and is 296 times more potent than CO2-the gases released today will continue to be active in degrading the climate decades from now

- Livestock production is land intensive a recent report by Greenpeace on land use in the largest meat producing state in BRazil found that cattle production was responsible for vastly more deforestation than soya.

-1/3 of cereal crops goes into animal food

-Livestock production is water intensive and accounts for 8% of global human water use. It is the largest source of water pollutants, principally animal waste, antibiotics, hormones, chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides

- A number of schools have implemented meat free days. A town in Belgium, Brazil and Sweden.

Check out the link below to learn more about the cause:

http://www.supportmfm.org/ or

http://www.goop.com/