Meatless Monday and Meat Consumption in the US.

It's hard to know how to take the infantile Republican reaction to the USDA's recommendation, now retracted, to eat less meat one day per week. Beef is the most water intensive food we have, so in a summer when half the country is suffering from drought conditions, it makes sense that we can do with one or two fewer hamburgers. As an article in Salon put it, it was as if the USDA had declared war on the American Way of Life.

From the Salon article: "Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, called the recommendation “heresy” and pledged to “have the double rib-eye Mondays instead.” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told his drought-stricken constituents that “I will eat more meat on Monday to compensate” for the USDA suggestion. And Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, proudly posted a photo to his Facebook page showing a Caligulian smorgasbord of animal flesh that his Senate colleagues were preparing to scarf down as a protest against USDA." It boggles the mind.  These are not leaders, these are children who cry when they don't get their own way. 

NPR recently presented a nice series of graphics about meat consumption in the US. Here's what it takes to make a quarter pounder. 

What it takes to make a quarter pounder.

Though US beef consumption has gone down in recent years -- chicken is now the meat of choice -- the average American still eats 270 lbs of meat per year, which is 2.7 times the global average. That's an average  of about 3/4 of a pound of meat per day -- or 3 quarter-pounder burgers per day. Gad, yes we can stand to cut back.

Here's a nice summary video that explains the hidden costs of hamburgers from the Center for Investigative Reporting: 

I'm definitely down with Meatless Monday -- and more -- how about you?

Day 3 Recap

As the English say, I'm chuffed!

We had a dozen people take in the expertise of
GSU Executive Chef for a demo on how to make
Northeast Squash Bisque this afternoon. Chris
made it clear that cooking was all about
experimenting and nothing was locked in. It
was an easy-going class with lots of questions
(including several from moi) and the result
was a colorful, delicious bisque initially
served in shooters and garnished with
a tasty apple confit.

Asked about the challenge of cooking for students, he said that unlike
cooking in restaurants, students come back every day. He stressed
that if students want to talk about the meals they are getting he is
all ears.

This event was coordinated by Mary Farina in our Ecolympics
committee and facilitated by Sabrina Harper in BU's Dining Services,
whose enthusiasm made it happen. Thanks to you both!

Sabrina said Dining Services has events planned all through Earth
Week, so tune in to what they have to offer.

It was a great appetizer for our main Ecolympics event, a screening
of Planet Earth. Three lucky Ecolympians will take home the entire
DVD set of Planet Earth and we had a nice teaser of two episodes
from disc one for an audience of 25, together with vegetarian pizza
from Pizza Pie-er, very capably ordered by my partner in crime,
Alex. (It's a good thing too, because I probably would have forgotten
it was "Meatless Monday" and ordered pepperoni...)

I have to say that I love Planet Earth! I know there are clips on
Youtube but there's nothing like seeing it on a decent sized film
screen, with the amiable narration and storytelling of David
Attenborough (I think the US version has Sigourney Weaver as
narrator). So many of the animal episodes propel you through
the cycles of life: birds courting, panda bears nursing, caribou
running for their lives, elephants staving off thirst. The entire
drama is literally awesome. I could have watched another
complete disc. Maybe next year we'll have a Planet Earth
marathon?

We also sold a few t-shirts and gave away a bunch of our
posters -- stop by CAS 119 if you'd like either (t-shirts: ten
bucks, posters: gratis). Great to see the interest out there.

We were also asked it we were planning more events for the
week. We didn't want to go crazy with events in our first
Ecolympics so the rest of our events are the self-run events
that you've signed up for on our webpage (yes, you can still
sign up!). And we knew other student groups would
be doing their thing too, so check out the terrific list of events
here.

This week is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Perhaps in
40 more years, we'll all be so environmentally conscious and
living sustainably that we won't need an Ecolympics?
We can hope, right?

Finally, on my way into the veggie cooking demo today, I had
to cross over the path of the Boston Marathon. At 3pm,
hundreds and hundreds of runners were flowing past, some
taking it lightly but some wearing an enormous struggle on
their faces. In my seven years in Boston, this was the first
time I'd come down to see it and I was touched to see all the
emotion. All these people set out to essentially climb their
own Mount Everest and here they were completing it.

Last year, two of my sisters, Sue and Terrie, and several of
my cousins responded to the challenge of my cousin Heather
to walk the Hawaii marathon with her. Heather was on her
third bout with breast cancer and she saw her own treatment
as a marathon, an attitude that inspired everyone around her.
The "Honolulu Hopeful's" were written about in the
Calgary Herald after their race in December. Heather died
of cancer last month, but I was thinking of her and my
sisters who trained with her and supported her and walked an
entire marathon for her and for their own reasons. (They said
they'd never walk another one -- it takes too long! -- though
they didn't rule out running one. ) I'm proud of all of them.

The fight to preserve Earth's biodiversity is a sort
of marathon. Our Ecolympics are like a
training ground... can our small differences add
up to big change? We hope so, but only if we're
in it for the long haul. I am, and I hope you will
be too.

Good luck with your events and let us know how you're doing! Also, stop by our table on Earth Day (Thursday) and say Hi!

Daniel