Founder of LifeEdited.com and TreeHugger.com
Several years ago, I asked myself a question: “Knowing what I know, why am I not a vegetarian?” I consider myself a green guy. I grew up with hippie parents in a log cabin. I started a site called TreeHugger.com, devoted to sustainability, design, food, culture, transportation, energy, fashion, politics, health, and other environmental issues. I knew that the billions of animals we eat are raised in packed-to-the-gills, feces-filled factory farms. I knew meat production has a bigger carbon footprint than all transportation forms combined: cars, trains, planes, buses, and boats . . . all of it! And I knew eating a mere hamburger a day could increase my risk of premature death by a third and that beef production uses 100 times more water than vegetable production does. Yet there I was, twiddling my thumbs, chomping on my burger like everything was cool.
I know vegetarianism is better for the planet, our health, and animals—but in our carnivorous culture, it can be hard to make the change. Though we as a society are eating less meat than we did a decade ago, we still eat twice as much as we did in the 1950s. What was once a meal’s special little side treat has become its star attraction.
So why was I stalling? I think it was because I had created a binary solution: You’re either a meat eater or you’re a vegetarian. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to make the full plunge. Even though there are many delicious plant-based meals, my common sense and good intentions often conflicted with my taste buds. With this binary solution, my timetable for going veg was always the same: I’ll do it later. It is not surprising that later never came.
As time passed, I wondered if there might be a third solution—something between never eating meat and eating it all the time? After all, if everyone reduced their meat consumption by half, it would be like half of us were vegetarians. That was when I came up with weekday vegetarianism. The name says it all: I wouldn’t eat anything that had a face on it Monday through Friday. On the weekend, the choice was mine. It’s simple and structured, so it is easy to remember, and it’s flexible enough that I could break it here and there without feeling restricted. After all, cutting out meat five days a week is equivalent to cutting 70 percent of my overall intake. This decrease results in a smaller carbon footprint; a longer, healthier life; a reduction in the suffering of animals; and probably more money in my wallet. If you’re looking to reduce your meat consumption, I can’t recommend weekday vegetarianism enough.
But if weekday vegetarianism doesn’t mesh with your lifestyle, that’s all right too. It’s just one strategy among many for eating less meat and for being a reducetarian. Two other possible variations are (1) The Vampire: Eats meat only after the sun has set and (2) The Deck o’ Cards: Eats meat no bigger than a deck of cards.
The point is to do what works for you. The important thing is to make consistent progress toward your objective of curbing meat consumption. Every little reduction helps improve both personal and planetary health. My current venture, LifeEdited.com, is about designing happier, greener lives using less space and stuff than the status quo would have us believe is necessary. But not everyone is ready to give up his or her 4,000-square-foot home for a 200-square-foot micro apartment. Maybe they start with reducing their home size to 3,000 square feet. Progress is the point. That said, the more you reduce—whether it’s meat or housing size—the more you help.
In this process, it’s important to be compassionate with ourselves. We must understand our limitations and obstacles. Sometimes we are going to lack the fortitude to live up to our ideals. No undertaking is perfect. Often, reaching an objective such as cutting out or significantly reducing meat consumption is an incremental process, fraught with missteps and compromises. Sure, absolute dedication is a laudable quality, but you don’t need to be unbending to make progress. For example, special occasions like traveling abroad or staying with friends or family might call for more permissiveness—you want to taste the local cuisine that is cooked with pork or you want to eat Thanksgiving turkey on Thanksgiving (a weekday). Don’t stress out. Even if you take a short break from eating less meat, you can always return to some tasty, heart-and-earth-friendly veggie dishes. Every bit helps. Keep your goals realistic, keep moving forward and you will find it just gets easier and easier to eat less meat.