Statement of Intent

For the next 3 weeks, I will be giving up eating meat except for seafood. This includes turkey sandwiches, pepperoni pizza and any type of chicken. I have chosen to do this because food is something that many don’t even consider or contemplate as an environmental issue. It also is a concern of morals because of the methods of production that humans have chosen to use in order to further their own gain.

            In the production of meat, the animals’ needs must be taken care of, for example: food, water, shelter etc. So, the maintenance of livestock already requires much more energy and resources. Meat also requires a much greater land area to produce compared to plant production. This, in addition to bad practices of grazing, results in more deforestation and an increase in the risk of desertification in some countries. In contrast, plants such as fruit trees produce more with much less area and are therefore more efficient. Since such large areas are being taken for agriculture, other ecosystems are being destroyed as farms move in and push these environments back, also harming the habitats of other living organisms, and consequently the organisms themselves. Farmers have also taken to feeding their livestock with corn because it is cheap. However, they end up having to feed the animals a greater amount of corn (because they need the energy for other necessities like movement) to produce a considerably less amount of meat. This is becoming more and more of a concern as developing countries begin to acquire tastes for the diets of Americans, and are demanding to eat meat. Meat production, however, is not just an environmental issue. There are questions about the treatment of the animals – feeding them antibiotics, crowding them in small, dark areas, and slaughtering them cruelly. Therefore, there are also queries on whether this is what we want our farms to be like and how far we are willing to go to eat meat.

            By not eating meat, I will be supporting the cause of creating a more sustainable diet that not only produces less harm on the environment, but also allows for a higher yield of food that could help in the problem of hunger occurring globally. However, I also feel that completely giving up meat is not necessary. Meat produced from farms that carry out healthy farming practices can be bought from butchers and farmers markets and promote a healthy relationship between meat and meat eaters. This project is not measurable, though it can be mentally noted when meat has been avoided and how often I usually eat it. I am not being completely vegetarian as I am allowing my self to eat seafood, which I still consider meat. This is so I don’t lose all my major sources of protein so suddenly as I have never given up meat before. It also isn’t very healthy to abruptly change your diet, so I’ve decided to keep fish.

            I think the most difficult part of this will be remembering to not eat meat, because it is so second nature to just eat what you want when it is there. Even if I really want to cheat, I think I’ll want to not cheat even more because this is something I’ve always wanted to try anyways.