Monthly Archive

Yes,  that is a shocking title. Blame it on my brother Adam if you want to…

I do enjoy a steak from time to time, often with a beer and/or baked potato. However, last night Time magazine just ruined this for me [at least temporarily] by pointing out that (by my math) veggies 40 to 1 advantage over beef in their carbon footprint. What does that mean exactly? Where the ratio of fossil fuel to food energy for veggies is about 2 to 1, for beef cattle this can be up to 80 to 1. Does that make sense to use 80 calories of energy to produce 1 calorie of energy? Hmmmm, let’s see there….

Probably the best way to help with this imbalance or energy to produce protein is by eating locally. Unfortunately, Time doesn’t report on estimates for locally-grown beef, nor do they compare processed/shipped poultry to locally grown protein. If you haven’t enjoyed a locally-raised pork sandwich from the Muncie Farmers Market or taken advantage of a local meat shop, then look it up now! I would suspect that Chicken isn’t nearly the energy-suck that cows are.

This could give whole new meaning to “eat me… I’m a turkey!“