I didn't think that the food I ate actually made that big of a difference on the environment, apparently I was wrong. After calculating how much I eat a week with the Eating Green Calculator, I was surprised to learn how much I am taking from the environment and how much it costs by what I am eating. Usually, I don't eat a lot of meat so I didn't think my results would be very high.
According to the calculator, in a yearly period it would take 0.5 acres of grass and grain needed to feed the animals I eat. It would take 0.1 pounds of pesticides used to grow animal feed, 18.6 pounds of fertilizer used to grow animal feed, and the most astonishing, 3,255 pounds of manure are created by the animals I eat every year.
After recalculating the number of servings per week I would be willing to not eat, my results went down, even if it was just a little bit. I cut back on all of my servings by at least one. It may seem like a small change but did actually make a pretty considerable difference over the time period of one year. In the end, I did take the pledge. I've been wanting to cut back on my meat servings anyway- and this would be the perfect time to make that commitment. I hope to only eat meat maybe a couple of times a week.
Here is the link to the Eating Green Calculator: Calculator
After having a few discussions in class today, remember that it is important to note that we don't know exactly how they calculate everything. Some people who don't eat meat at all were apparently taking up more space in the environment compared to someone who did eat meat. There were a few mixes results that I just want you to be aware of. However it is never a bad idea to take a step back and figure out how you can improve your eating for you and the environment!
ReplyDeleteIt's just so surprising how much effect you can have and you are only one person. If you cut back on the right foods you can not only help the environment but help yourself as well. Lana does have a point though, the calculator has to be a little off because we don't know how to calculate everything.
ReplyDeleteIf there are changes that you really do want to make and these kinds of quizzes help you make those decisions then that is great. I know for a lot of people it just doesn't seem realistic for them to make any changes because they know that they really don't want to. There are always other changes we can make to cut down on our impact on the earth too.
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