Animals are friends NOT food

 

I had a hard time trying to decide how I can be more sustainable. I think of myself as pretty sustainable already. I don’t use plastic water bottles, I always bring my own bags to the grocery store, I recycle and compost whenever I can, and I don’t usually waste food. This left two things for me: reduce my meat consumption or unplug my appliances. Both of which are pretty common habits for people to try and break. I was a vegetarian for almost a year during highschool but I had minor health problems and had to start eating meat again. I don’t want to go back to that so I can’t cut meat out of my diet completely. I then thought of unplugging my chargers. As I’m writing this, I am envisioning my dorm room which has my computer charger still plugged in without my computer attached to it.

Both challenges I thought were good ones to be attacked over the next couple of months but I decided I wanted to try and reduce my meat consumption. Of course I won’t cut meat out completely but the goal is to reduce the amount I eat. Already, I mostly only eat chicken, and fish. I hardly ever eat beef. I am challenging myself to ultimately reduce my meat eating to only three to four times a week and the meat I eat will only be natural, organic and as much is possible, local. As a former vegetarian I know other good sources of protein such as cheeses, nuts, and beans. I know this will be hard as I realized how much I crave meat after stopping my vegetarianism but I am interested to see if it changes my feelings about eating meat overall and if I feel worse or better after reducing the amount in my diet. To start with, I will reduce my portion size and from there I will cut down my consumption to only three-four times a week.