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Tips for Lowering Your Carbon Footprint:
- Don't waste food, you bought it, eat it!
- Eat "seasonal and regional".
- Limit beef and cheese consumption.
- Eat fish and fruit in season.
- No processed or packaged foods.
Meat Free Monday is a student-driven idea and is fully supported by Dining & Culinary Services. We provide meat free choices in The Commons on Monday so everyone has the chance to take and uphold the pledge:
“I pledge to go meat-free on Mondays, for my
health and the health of the planet.”
This is PURELY VOLUNTARY!
It’s everyone’s private choice.
This is NOT about being a vegetarian. It is about
increasing awareness of the REAL costs of
factory-farmed meat, paid in health consequences
and environmental degradation."
Some Good Reasons to Limit Your Meat Consumption & To Be Aware of the Source of The Meat You Consume
- Per capita global meat consumption: doubled in last 50 years—NY Times
- Meat consumption expected to double again by 2050 on current trends: “relentless growth in livestock production,” Henning Steinfeld of United Nations
- It requires 2500 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef (versus 12 gallons per head of lettuce, as comparison)
- U of Chicago Study: If Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20%, it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan—a Camry, say—to the ultra-efficient Prius
- 150,000 people employed in “meatpacking”; Immigration and Naturalization Services estimates ¼ in Nebraska and Iowa are illegal immigrants
- Iowa alone—hog factories and farms produce 50 million tons of excrement annually
- 70% of all antiobiotics used on chickens, cows, pigs—and effects on human health unknown (Midkiff, Meat You Eat)
- Hormones: 95% of cattle routinely receive “growth-enhancement” drugs and hormones (Midkiff, Meat You Eat)
- Big Agriculture: Just four corporations dominate, produce 80% of U.S. meat: Cargill, Tyson, National Beef, and Swift