So January has always been the time of healthy eating, fitness adverts and talk of a "dry" month to recover from any excesses of Christmas. But in recent years there's been increased emphasis on "Veganuary" - the idea of going moving to a plant-based diet for a month with the aim of protecting the environment, preventing animal suffering, and improving the health of millions of people. As a keen meat (and cheese and other dairy) eater - and with a family who have been brought up with meat as a significant element of their diet the idea of this poses somewhat of a challenge.
I read the other other day that 10% of greenhouse gases comes from meat production, however doing a bit more reading makes this seem like an underestimate and it's probably nearer 15%. As you may expect beef is top of the greenhouse gas producers producing nearly twice as much lamb and eight times as much as pork or poultry:
This data comes from a study that has been well covered since its publication in Science in 2018. it looked at the full impact of these goods including the land use, gas emissions and water pollution and its author, Joseph Poore concluded “A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use".
The Veganuary charity itself has been raising awareness since 2014 and organisations such as Greenpeace have long been campaigning for reduced meat consumption with arguments highlighting the effects of intensive farming and the impact on rainforests, human rights and wildlife. The evidence seems pretty compelling: a plant based diet is better for the planet. So why don't I embrace it? Two years ago I considered trying Veganuary. It seemed like an interesting challenge and had I only been catering for myself I might have embraced it wholeheartedly. But I'm generally cooking for a family of 4 who, as I said earlier, have been brought up eating meat and seeing meat as a reasonably important part of a meal. Trying to accommodate everyone's preferences and keep a variety of meals on the menu is already a challenge and no-one else was willing to give it a go. And I like meat - the varieties of textures and flavours across the range of meat and fish are what I'm used to - and I wasn't very keen to cook that for the family while denying it myself. My compromise was to be vegetarian during the week for January. I know this may seem like a massive cop out but we've all got to start somewhere, right? It did mean that I often ended up adapting meals to have a veggie option alongside the meat. Things like stir fries and curries are relatively easy - although there was an increase in washing up from the multiple pans. One thing it did highlight was that the options for eating out are much more limited for vegetarians: rather than having a full menu to choose from there may only be one or two token dishes (depending on the establishment).
It was an interesting experiment. Even at that level it did challenge me to look beyond the "favourites" on my shopping list and seek out some alternatives, some of which have stuck with me to today. It showed me that the range of meat replacements is ever increasing but that does bring a new level of complexity in terms of food processing and food miles. And I've even managed to sneak in one or two changes into the family, for example our sausage casserole is now made with veggie sausages; I'm still struggling with a flavoursome veggie bolognese but my veggie chilli has had the seal of approval. I've become much less reliant on meat as a default (or starting point) for a meal - but I'm still find it extremely difficult to cut out dairy, and as can be seen at the chart at the top, this is still a big issue for CO2 emissions. To my relief, there is an acknowledgement that sustainable diets don't have to be purely plant based. The FAO and WHO highlight that a sustainable diet:
Includes wholegrains, legumes, nuts and an abundance and variety of fruits and vegetables
Can include moderate amounts of eggs, dairy, poultry and fish, and small amounts of red meat
Includes safe and clean drinking water as the fluid of choice
Is based on a great variety of unprocessed or minimally processed foods, balanced across food groups, while restricting highly processed food and drink products
Reduces food loss and waste
As with so many things around sustainability and improving our planet ,it's far better for many people to make "imperfect" changes than a few to do things "perfectly" and for us all to reduce our meat consumption, even a little bit will start to move things in the right direction.
This year I haven't made a conscious decision to do anything differently in January - partly I've had one or two other things taking up my headspace (flights, sponsorship.....). But I am definitely more mindful of the choices I make (we went out for dinner this evening and I chose a vegetarian option which wouldn't have crossed my mind previously). I've been enjoying the "Roasting Tin" recipe books by Rukmini Iyer which have some good vegetarian and vegan suggestions but it's still a challenge to get these adopted by others in the family.
So what works for you? I'd love to know if you have embraced vegan or vegetarian dishes in your households and especially if you've got recipes that you think would appeal to seasoned meat eaters. Feel free to comment below (or on Facebook) with any links or recommendations!