5/6/08

Breakfast: Water, Blueberry Muffin

Lunch: Coke, PB&J, Cookie

Snack: Vitamin Water, Apple

Dinner: Water, Salad, Cheese Quesadilla

I'm not going to lie, not eating meat today was a little more difficult. I felt like I was surrounded by meat and I really wanted to get a tuna sandwich from the snack bar! I never realized how prevalent meat is in our every day food selection. I can't imagine how many animals (turkeys, cows, pigs) can sustain such a huge demand. America is a huge meat eating country and as a result animal agriculture is a huge industry.

At earthsave.org I found an interesting report that felt that although focusing on reducing Carbon emissions is very important, other non-carbon greenhouse gases such as methane should not be overlooked.  The report summary stated that one of the most powerful strategies to reduce global warming is to convert to a vegetarian diet.  I learned from this report that CO2 emissions are not the main source of global warming; in fact, there are other greenhouse gases that have the potential to trap much larger amounts of heat.  One of these powerful greenhouse gases is methane, which is 21 more times powerful than CO2.  Methane's leading source is from animal agriculture in addition to coal mining and landfills.  Not to mention the demand for meat has increased tremendously in the past 50 years.  According to this report, methane is responsible for nearly half of the global warming currently affecting our planet!