For our New Year's resolution this year, Angiela and I (wife, designer, light of my life) decided to forgo BEEF for one year. I was looking for a way to be better about practicing what I preach and make sustainability less of a job and more of a lifestyle.
No beef: No steak, no beef ribs, no cheeseburgers. Don't get me wrong, I do love a good burger, but this is an experiment in carbon footprinting and will power. Chickens are good, pigs (I like to eat them), just no beef. No burger was going to get the better of me.
My wife has been better than I (ok, the burger won a couple of times) but so far here is the tally:
according to the EPA, we've taken the equivalent of 210 cars off the road so far or saved 130,000 gallons of gas.
Me aside, did you see that? I'll do it again: cheeseburger.
Yes. that's a link to a site where someone has done AND SHOWN all the math to calculate the carbon footprint of a cheeseburger.
Incredible.
Valiant even.
The internet is a strange and wonderful place.
4 comments:
On the other hand...
Not eating the cheeseburger didn't prevent the cow from being bred or eventually killed. Nor did it prevent the meat from showing up at the local supply. It also ended up being purchased and then eaten by someone else.
Taken individually, not eating the cheeseburger didn't really reduce anything except your personal intake of red meat which according to some is a good thing regardless.
My wife and children don't eat red meat. My wife hasn't for decades. I enjoy a burger or a steak once or twice a month, maybe, so I can "feel" good about not being too "carbon" in this regard.
It seems to me though that unless the actual consumption of these things and all of the related processes are also reduced it probably doesn't really reduce our carbon footprint much at all. If my and your eschewing red meat meant that less meat was produced and sold, now were talking "less".
Does that mean it is pointless to try or that we shouldn't try, no.
Ummm, our economy relies on you eating beef, lamb, wearing wool (not that people seem to want that anymore), Kiwifruit and Wine.
So get back to rampant carnivorous consumption please!
You're concerned about Big-Macs. But there is a BIGGER 'Mac' to worry about, but you don't want to know about it. IPods and other disposable electronic/fashion accessories. At least you can eat a burger. Try munching on lead and mercury laced plastic.
anyway, back to our completely carbon neutral Revit...
I choose to eat the cows since they produce more carbon farting than the average car.
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