Less Meat and Less Packaging

Living away from home has made me become more aware of my personal actions that have an impact on the environment. Since I arrived at Lafayette in August, many of my behaviors have changed. I don’t have a car, so I either walk or take the bus when I need to get somewhere; I take shorter showers because I live with so many other people; and I’ve become more aware of turning off the lights when I leave the room. However, the behaviors that I haven’t really changed yet are my eating habits. For this challenge, I would like to eat less meat and buy foods with less packaging to throw away.

I feel like I am underestimating how difficult it might be to cut meat out of my diet, especially due to the limited other options in the dining hall. As a personal goal it might not be too difficult because I’m not a huge fan of meat; however, I’ll usually pick a food option with meat in it just because it is there without really thinking too much about it. My objective with this project is to become more aware in general of what I’m eating and where it is coming from. I’ve always been wary of the meat industry because of its generally horrible treatment of animals, but it never occurred to me how huge of an environmental impact it could have as well, when it comes to feeding the animals, giving them water, and transporting the meat. I have been interested in exploring vegetarianism for awhile, so I felt as if this project would be the perfect start!

Additionally, starting college has made me realize just how much trash I throw away from food. I have to empty my wastebin constantly because it quickly fills up with wrappers, empty boxes, and water bottles (which I do recycle!). In this project I would also like to explore eating more fresh fruits and vegetables that have little to no packaging, in favor of snacking on bagged or wrapped foods that create more garbage.

I don’t expect these tasks to be easy, but I don’t really know how much of a challenge to expect, either. Wish me luck!