People who are interested in practicing green living may tell you that eating less meat or going completely vegetarian will lower your carbon footprint. The problem is that while raising animals for food, especially beef, takes a lot of energy and causes a lot of carbon emission, the truth is that you may actually have a larger footprint when you go vegetarian. Here is why.
Many vegetarians turn to milk products such as yogurt and cheese to substitute some of the animal protein that is eaten by non vegetarians. The problem arises because some of these milk products may actually generate more carbon emissions that are raised in producing meat products. Hard cheese, for example, takes a lot of time and a lot of milk to produce. So, per pound, the emissions for cheese are more likely to be higher than for beef. If you are a vegetarian that eats more cheese as a result of skipping beef and lamb (two of the biggest meat offenders in terms of carbon emissions), then you may be shooting yourself in the food, so to speak.
One way around this dilemma is to simply go vegan. Practicing a vegan lifestyle means that that you don’t consume any animal products, including anything made with milk or eggs. Either way, reducing your consumption of any animal products and replacing them with local sustainable produce is the best way to really make an impact. Food produced from plants usually has a much lower carbon footprint than food produced from animals.
If you are like me and can’t or won’t give up the cheese, choose varieties that are produced quickly, usually soft cheeses. Find out if you have a local cheese producer in your area. If your cheese isn’t traveling quite as far, you will reduce emissions this way, as well.