Beef and global warming, Part 2

In this morning's GreenSpace column, I wrote about a Carnegie Mellon study about the American diet.

Environmentalists have been trying to get people to eat locally-sourced food — spinach from down the street instead of asparagus from Peru.

But researcher Chris Weber concluded that transportation only accounts for 11 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions related to our diets. He found that the best way to reduce your dietary impact is to eat less meat.

If you want to compare, here's his breakdown of the average American diet, by calorie content:

25 percent cereals and carbohydrates
8 percent chicken/fish/eggs
11 percent dairy
9 percent fruits and vegetables
38 percent oils and sweets
9 percent red meat, including pork

One of the problems with red meat is the methane emitted by "ruminants," such as beef and pork. If you don't believe it, visit this EPA website that ranks methane-emitters.  "Enteric fermentation" is third.  Want to guess No. 8? Rice cultivation. Amazing.

In reporting the story, I wound up talking to — but not writing about — a vegan, Victoria Crompton, of Wilmington.
I thought her story was interesting.

Crompton initially started eating more vegetables after she became concerned about the conditions many farm animals live in.

Later, she became concerned about health issues related to meat.

Finally, she "found out what an environmentally devastating issue meat production is as well," and pretty soon she wasn't eating anything animal-derived at all. Not even eggs. Or honey.
"The three threads all meshed," she told me.

I asked her if it was difficult, and she said it wasn't.

She said most people don't eat as varied a diet as you might expect, and it's a more or less simple matter of taking a family's everyday recipes and modifying them.

Her own specialty is spaghetti with vegetarian "meatballs." She serves it at gatherings, and no one notices, other than to say it tastes delicious.

Crompton has been vegan for five years now.

"I just didn't realize my food choices were as significant an environmental choice as they've turned out to be," she said.

Myself? I'm still eating meat. But I swear, I'm cutting back.