Carbon, Chemicals and Cow Pee: Going Vegetarian for a Week

{Editor’s Note: this is Day 11 of the 15-day EcoChallenge through the Northwest Earth Institute. You can read about the kickoff here.}

SUSTAINABLE FOOD

Yesterday at dinner we embarked on our meat-free week. For the first time in my life, I’m committing to one whole week of vegetarian meals. It takes some planning, but last night began with a tummy-filling veggie lasagna (zucchini and roasted red peppers). Today I’m making a potato-cheese-pepper frittata and a new quinoa and corn soup that supposedly only takes ten minutes to prepare.

Reasons to go vegetarian include: building stronger immune systems, living longer, saving money, reducing pollution and protectingg animals. It’s the environmental aspects that inspire me most.

Peeing cow

For years, I’ve reduced my beef consumption because cows use the most land and water and produce the most carbon dioxide. Cows are cute and all, but they sure need a lot of space. According to World Wildlife Fund, an area of the world’s rain forests about the size of New York state is destroyed every year to create grazing land.

And here’s a newsflash: It takes about 600 gallons of water to produce just one hamburger patty! Speaking of water… cows tend to pee, and that pee—which is replete with chemicals from cow-fattening hormones—contaminates our ground water and local water bodies.

While I doubt I can give up my hamburgers forever, I want this week to show my family and me that a vegetarian lifestyle can be just as diverse and delicious. I hope the process will continue beyond the EcoChallenge, and inspire me to make several meat-free meals every week. This will be particularly challenging when visiting my mother-in-law who typically loads us up with enough pork and beef to set us back several years in the fight against global warming. It’s my kryptonite—I have trouble saying ‘no’ to free food!

However, scientists say that reducing your meat consumption can have one of the largest positive impacts on the environment. Just switching from beef to chicken decreases carbon dioxide emissions by 70%. Going vegetarian (and dairy-free) even one day per week cuts more carbon emissions than eating local every day of the year. That’s worth making the change.

WASTE REDUCTION

Perhaps the high-energy veggie dinner inspired us, because last night my family pitched in to help me create my Halloween costume. We are trick-or-treating as a large group this year and parents have been encouraged to dress up as well. I don’t own any costumes and didn’t want to buy something for this one-time use. Five of the kids are dressing as superheroes, so I thought I’d participate in the theme as Super EcoMom!

Elements of Super EcoMom costume blowing in the breeze.

In creating this outfit, the key aspect was to be eco-conscious. We had to repurpose items that we already have. Clothes were easy enough: black, body-hugging exercise pants and a shirt that I bought on an impulse once and have never worn. My daughter salivates over this sparkly shirt; she picked it out for my costume, and it does have a lovely “sky” quality about it.

For my superhero cape, I uncovered this leaf from an Ikea product that has not seen the light of day since our last move. I’m glad we can give it new life. And I’m using a clothespin (symbolic of sustainable energy!) to hold it around my neck.

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Donna DeForbes