Meatless Mondays

I love the idea of Meatless Mondays. There are many reasons, but first and formost I love that I can spread the word without someone pulling the the "crunchy granola, hippy, stupid liberal" card. This has nothing to do with me trying to get everyone to join PETA or to push veganism. This is an idea that has a great deal to do with the way I was raised.

If you've ever read my profile, you know that my father was a child during WW II which has everything to do with the frugal and sustainable lifestyle I grew up in. During this time there was a great deal of rationing and recycling occuring. People were already living frugally because of the Great Depression and the recycling, especially metal, was pushed to help with the war, though my father humorously shares that he believes it was more to make people feel like they were helping out. But another concept which was pushed during this time, was Meatless Mondays because it saved so many resources. The more resources saved, the more sustainable. And Global Warming aside, the reality always is, the more sustainable your lifestyle, the less money you will spend.

My hope when writing and creating these hubs has always been to stress that it's our daily choices which make the biggest impact. As important as it is to hold corporations and organizations accountable for their actions regarding our natural resources, the larger changes are made by the small choices we make as individuals while carrying out our daily lives. Going meatless one day a week is one of those small choices that not only positively affects the environment, it also positively affects your wallet and your health.

As Americans, we consume eight ounces of meat a day, which is more than the USDA recommended daily amount. Increased meat consumption is linked to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity. These diseases account for 70% of the $2.5 trillion spent yearly on health care in this country. As a nation, by simply changing to a diet that is lower in meat and higher in fruits, grains and vegetables, these numbers would reduce considerably.

The meat industry itself is also a huge drain on our natural resources. Shipping the feed and shipping the animals cross country greatly contributes to the creation of greenhouse gasses. And there are huge sanitary and public health concerns regarding the animal waste and chemicals produced by this highly inefficient method of farming, which accounts for one-fifth of man made greenhouse gasses.

Going meatless one day a week is equal to switching from a gas guzzling SUV to a hybrid. Enough water would be saved for everyone to fill their bath tubs twenty times a week and over 12 billion gallons of gasoline would go unused if everyone went meatless one day a week for a year.

Now those are some statistics that really put this small, simple action into perspective.

This challenge is simple. Take one, small step that will not intrude on your daily routine. You make dinner every night anyway. Why not make meal times as sustainable as possible. And if that's too much, simply pick one day a week and choose not to eat meat.

I've even made it super easy for you by including all of my sustainable and meatless recipes. Hopefully they will inspire you to create your own meatless dishes and explore how you can make meal time more sustainable.