Photo taken by Olive Magazine - 18 Best Veggie Burger Recipes
Recently, especially with the Amazon rain-forest fires, you may have heard that the meat industry is a huge contributing factor to Climate Change. But just how big of a problem is it?
Well, it turns out that it is quite a big problem. According to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), 18% of all man-made greenhouse gasses can be traced back to livestock farming. Not only that but 30% of our land is dedicated to livestock farming, which requires an excess amount of resources such as water and grain, but fishing is also contributing to the destruction of coral reefs. On a more topical note, 90% of the Amazon rain-forest that has been cleared has been to graze livestock.
What can you personally do to help tackle the impact of livestock farming on our planet? Well, the good thing is that you don’t have to give up meat if you don’t want to! There are many ways you can help reduce your diet’s impact on our environment that could potentially be of little inconvenience to you.
Firsty, by switching out beef in your diet for chicken, you are already cutting down your carbon footprint significantly! For every 100g of beef there are up to 105kg of greenhouse gasses produced, which compared to chicken at below 20kg, there is a big difference. So, just by doing something as simple as choosing to have a chicken burger rather than a beef burger, you can have a significant effect on tackling climate change.
What else? Well, just by having a few days a week where you don’t eat meat at all can also have a tremendous impact. The key is not about completely cutting out meat and other animal products from your diet, it’s all about reduction! Choosing to actively reduce these products from your diet benefits you in two ways: you feel better now that you’re having a more positive impact on our environment, and you’re still able to enjoy a good steak every now and then.
That being said, if you really want to take the plunge towards a delicious and healthy balanced vegetarian/vegan diet, then here are some tips from people who have done it:
• When switching your diet to vegetarian, don’t cut out meat straight away. Slowly reduce the amount of meat and fish you are eating day-to-day until you’ve completely cut it all out.
• Meat alternatives are your best friend! We understand that you’ll probably miss the taste of meat and may find it hard at first to adapt your meals to exclude meat centrepieces, but with meat-free products these days you barely notice a difference in taste (especially with those Quorn chicken nuggets)!
• Most supermarkets are now pushing out a variety of their own meat-free products. These not only taste incredible, but they are often cheaper than bigger vegetarian brands such as Quorn and Linda McCartney. They are also cheaper than most meat equivalents. Letting supermarkets know that consumers are very interested in meat-free products will also increase the variety on offer!
• Experiment with foods you’ve never tried before. Surprisingly, as someone whose not the greatest fan of cheese, halloumi is a personal favourite of mine! Hummus is also always a good choice (BBQ flavoured is a definite win), and all veggie burgers seem to taste great despite sound odd (beetroot burgers??)
• Just because you’re a vegetarian/vegan doesn’t mean you still can’t enjoy fast food every now and again! McDonald’s have their veggie burger and wrap, Subway have their new (and delicious) vegan patty, Burger King now have a halloumi burger, and KFC are talking about bringing a variety of meat-free products into the scene.
Now you know more about how you can reduce your diet’s impact on the environment! We hope that the next time you’re roaming around in Co-Op looking for something easy to throw in the oven, you’ll see the reduced Quorn lasagna and think “You know what, I’ll give it a go”. Then you can eat with the satisfaction of knowing that this wasn’t so bad on our burning planet!
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