I have recently become a vegetarian within the last two weeks. I’ve had meat three times since then…whoops! But it is the start of week number 3 so I am hoping I will be better this week. If you want an update about how I am doing on that, follow me on twitter! @ConcernedSkiBum
So why did I become a vegetarian? Well, believe it or not, it is better for the environment. It is crazy to think that something as simple as changing your diet could help the environment. Now don’t get me wrong, it is extremely hard, trust me I’ve tried before.
Here is the background on the failed attempt on being a vegetarian.
My junior year of college I was taking an interesting class called Saving Place. Each week we would go over a different way to save the environment and the whole class was based on a book called No Impact Man by Colin Beavan. The topics were taken out of his book. One week the topic was on food.
During the topic of food, the class watched a documentary called Food Inc. It is about farms, how animals are treated, and how the farmers are treated. It is a very good documentary because it points out things you would never even think about. Anyways, I left that class feeling disgusted and disappointed in our society.
At the beginning of the semester, the professor had given us a project that was due at the end. It was to take one of the topics from the book and try it out for 6 weeks, keep a journal throughout the 6 weeks and research how you are saving the environment by doing this. I chose to be vegetarian for those 6 weeks. But being a poor college kid I cheated a lot because free food is free food no matter what kind or how good it is.
So why did I choose becoming a vegetarian?
- Animals are treated poorly. Chickens are fed so much and aren’t allowed freedom to run around that often their legs break because they get so fat.
- Farmers are treated poorly. The farmers often don’t get enough money for how hard they are working.
- Cows produce methane, one of the top greenhouse gases.
- Transportation of the food is the number one producer of carbon emissions.
- And my #1 reason…500 cows are in one hamburger patty!! Yuck! You never know what you are going to get.
My current roommate has also shown me how easy it is to be vegetarian, so she convinced me.
I suggest watching Food Inc. and reading No Impact Man. They are both extremely interesting and I recommend them to anyone who is the slightest bit interested in saving the environment. Don’t worry you won’t be disappointed!
Peace,
Concerned Ski Bum
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