what's for dinner?
- Vegetarian Burrito Bowl with Avocado Crema | The Modern Proper
Green Curry Buddha Bowl | The Modern Proper
Sesame Garlic Ramen Noodles | The Modern Proper
Vegetarian Chili | The Modern Proper
Easy Roasted Cauliflower Tacos | The Modern Proper
Chhole (Chickpea Curry) | EatingWell
Salsa-Black Bean Burgers Recipe | EatingWell
Crispy Baked Ravioli with Red Pepper & Mushroom Bolognese Recipe | EatingWell
Kung Pao Cauliflower | Food Network Kitchen Mum’s Everyday Red Lentils | Aarti Sequeira | Food Network
Vegetarian Pad Thai Recipe | Food Network Kitchen
Tofu-Vegetable Stir-Fry Recipe | Food Network Kitchen
Quinoa Salad with Asparagus, Goat Cheese and Black Olives Recipe | Bobby Flay | Food Network
Links and sources for this section:
Protein and vegetarian diets - PubMed (nih.gov)
10 Best Vegetarian Protein Sources and Meals (sentientmedia.org)
Best Vegetarian Instagram Accounts: 14 to Follow (greatist.com)
The Truth About Vegetarianism
Sure, transitioning to a vegetarian diet has its challenges but nothing drastically different from any other dietary restriction or change. Every day there are more and more plant-based restaurants and food options, meaning there is a whole world of delicious vegetarian dishes. Furthermore, there are several societal misconceptions about plant-based diets, fueled by the meat industry to dissuade you from cutting out animals from your daily diet.
The Myth of Protein
One of the biggest misconceptions around vegetarianism is a lack of protein. Plant-based diets can easily supply enough protein, and being vegetarian is just like avoiding any other food you already dislike. Plant-based foods are full of protein, and eating a well-balanced vegetarian diet offers many added nutrition benefits, as well (detailed further in the "PEOPLE" section).
the Meat Industry Destroys the Planet
-land use change
-fueling deforestation
-animal-caused emissions
-resource depletion and excessive use
-lowering sequestration
-air, water, and land pollution
-lowering biodiversity
-habitat destruction
-energy reliance and emissions
-chemical fertilizer dependency
-soil degradation
-antibiotic resistance increases
Our food system is broken, and our planet is paying the price. We have the power to create a more sustainable food system for animals, for the planet, and for us all. Leaving animals off our plate is the single biggest way we can reduce our individual impact on the environment. While it may not solve every single one of the world’s problems, it helps stop the threat of climate change. Join the movement to save our planet by making the switch to a plant-based diet. If we want any chance at mitigating climate and environmental destruction, we must decrease our meat consumption.
Stop Eating Meat if you
Care about the Environment
Human consumption of animal products is a primary driver of climate change (Vermueulen, Campbell, & Ingram, 2012). Cumulatively, meat production and its effects can be seen as responsible for approximately 87% of greenhous gas emissions. As such, one of the most effective behaviors people can adopt to mitigate climate change is to eat a plant-based diet (Hedenus, Wirsenius, Daniel, & Johansson, 2014; IPCC, 2020; Stehfest et al., 2009). On a global level, if the consumption of animal products remains unaltered, climate change will exceed 2°C — a level that experts predict will cause human suffering and death (Kim, Neff, Santo, & Vignorito, 2015). The writer Jonathan Safran Foer (2019) put it this way: “Changing how we eat will not be enough, on its own, to save the planet, but we cannot save the planet without changing how we eat”.
But we don’t have to rely on unsustainable factory farms to feed us. This is where vegetarianism and veganism come in. By eliminating our consumption of animal products and making the switch to plant-based eating, we can stop the rapid depletion of Earth’s resources, slow the threat of climate change, and help protect our planet for generations to come. The UN identifies plant-based diets “as a major opportunity for mitigating and adapting to climate change,” and it recommends that governments around the world adopt policies to reduce meat consumption in their countries and regions. While new government policies have the potential to create a huge shift in our food system, the good news is that we, as individuals, already have the power to combat climate change through our food choices.
14 Environmental Benefits of Veganism: Can It Save The Planet? (thehumaneleague.org)
17 Environmental Benefits Of Veganism (As Proven By Science) – Future Kind
society
We have been slowly trained by society to not talk about the meat we eat and to shut down the hypocrisy that comes with simultaneously eating meat yet caring about animals. It is easier for our minds to refuse to think about the horrors and suffering than acknowledge the truth and consider our own stance on meat-eating.
animals as lifeless machines
Animals are treated by the farming and fishing industries as if they are unfeeling machines, alive only to generate maximum profit. But each fish, chicken, lamb, cow, or pig is a sentient being capable of experiencing pain, fear, discomfort, and distress.
Ethical Vegetarianism
Ethical Vegetarianism/Veganism is the view that it is morally wrong to eat animals when we currently have no necessity to do so. There are many philosophical and ethical arguments that embrace vegetarianism and veganism, and if you are at all intrigued by ethical and philosophical considerations, check out these arguments:
The Commonsense Case for Ethical Vegetarianism (calpoly.edu)
Going vegan for the animals - Animal Aid
Links and sources for this section:
The United States Meat Industry at a Glance (meatinstitute.org)
A Vegetarian Saves More Than 404 Animals Each Year! - One Green Planet
Moral Hypocrisy
Most people would be unable to handle watching their dog or cat undergo a fraction of the abuses that cows, chickens, and pigs suffer through, yet we are trained to look the other way when it comes to these animals. This dissonance is due to the fact that if we saw the conditions that the animals live and die in than it would shift the balance to giving less money to the meat industry who actively works to distance us from our food. The more we are distanced from the animal that was killed for the food product, the less guilt and responsibility we feel for it being killed, even though we share the responsibility by financially supporting the meat industry.
Furthermore, by not purchasing these animal products and not eating animals, you mitigate the need for these animals to be bred and raised to suffer. If demand goes down and if Americans eat less meat, then less animals will have to undergo these abuses and would not have to be murdered. Some argue a single purchase or meatless meal will not actually make a difference, but over time and through working together these small differences can add up. Consider the exponential impact that each vegetarian can have by influencing their loved ones around them and so on. If we work to spread knowledge and encourage those around us to reconsider their choices, then we can work to make lasting and meaningful change. Even just you eating less meat means less animals being abused and killed for your benefit.
Villainized vegetarianism
Society and the meat industry villainize vegetarians and vegans. Most likely, you have some negative connotations with these terms but for no founded reason other than a societal manipulation fueled by those who want to suppress the truth. We are taught to see meat-eating as American, masculine, classy, and hetero-normative, with vegetarianism and veganism associated with the opposite connotations. Killing animals should not define you. Society tricks you to make vegetarians and vegans seem unnormal or crazy, yet isn't blindly obeying the propaganda of the meat industry the bigger issue? By strengthening negative societal constructs about vegetarianism, especially in America, the meat industry propagates the misconceptions that going plant-based has an excessive number of drawbacks. Many of the supposed “challenges” of eating less animals are exaggerated or simply not true.
Health benefits
Decreases Cholesterol Levels
As cholesterol comes only from animal foods, vegetarian diets are cholesterol-free. Although cholesterol is an essential component of each human cell, vegetarians do not need to worry about not getting enough cholesterol because the body can make all the cholesterol it needs from plant-based foods.
May Lower Coronary Heart Disease Risk
The EPIC-Oxford study, a major long-term research project
looking at diet and health, concluded:
Pescatarians: 13% lower risk of CHD than the meat-eaters
Plant-Based: 22% lower risk
Could Reduce Risk of Diabetes
A healthy vegetarian diet, having fewer fatty acids, is easy to absorb and nutritious. For those with diabetes or at risk, switching to a vegetarian diet can help regulate blood sugar.
May Lower Chronic Disease Risk
The Cornell-China-Oxford Project on Nutrition, Environment and Health concluded: eating less animal products results in lower risk of cancer, heart attacks, and other chronic diseases.
we lie to our kids ABout meat origins
Talking with your kids about this subject or changing your family’s diet is hard. If you have grown up eating meat and feeding your kids meat, then why would you introduce information to your kids that may change normalcy and your lifestyle? We teach our kids about the rest of the world around them but, understandably, are hesitant to tell our four-year-old that the hotdog she is eating comes from murdered cow and pig flesh. The difference here is unlike some of the other horrors we protect them from until they reach the “right age,” meat-eating is a form of violence they have a direct role in every time they eat meat. The problem with waiting until they are older or “more ready” for this information is that by then, they are already entrenched in the meat-eating culture and are less willing to change their eating habits and ethics. Information and giving them the freedom to choose what they eat is the best way we can end this cycle of meat consumption in the future.
Furthermore, after growing up eating meat, which is normalized by their most important role model, you, it is less likely they would change their beliefs. When people do talk about where meat comes from, they frequently use veiled language that children could easily misinterpret. By the time your child is six, they may know that bacon is “made” from an animal, but the danger lies in the vagueness of “made." In the absence of the concepts of violence and killing, we engender a false process that results in bacon from an animal. When we are vague with our kids or wait too long to discuss the reality of the processes that turn a cow into a hamburger, we are opening a path of detrimental rationalizations. To cope and logically piece eating animals together with the other morals they have learned, kids fabricate false concepts instead. We have taught them to care for animals and that those animals are our friends, yet now we are forcing them to eat animals. We owe it to our kids to inform them early on about the truth of their dinner and to allow them to make their own decisions about what they want to eat.
Children are unsuspecting meat eaters: An opportunity to address climate change - ScienceDirect started this entire campaign goes into further detail about children's misinformation about meat. Several passages and pieces of evidence from this campaign are taken from its information and conclusions.
Below are some more sources and helpful guides for learning more about the meat industry and how it impacts everyone:
Health benefits of a vegetarian diet | Proceedings of the Nutrition Society | Cambridge Core
Vegetarian diet: How to get the best nutrition - Mayo Clinic
The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory - Carol J. Adams - Google Books