I chose to do the Eating Green Calculator for this assignment. I was interested first of all to find out my estimated impact, but also about how I could improve my diet. It was a little difficult to enter my weekly servings of each food (beef, chicken, eggs, milk...) since it usually varies from week-to-week. So I tried to kind of enter servings on average (I put zero servings for eggs since I rarely use them - it doesn't mean I never do).
I think I'm happy with my impact, however it is hard to tell what is "good". I also liked that they provided the nutritional information!
Then I clicked on the tab to learn how to improve my diet AND protect the environment: I didn't change much. Since I had already entered such small amounts of servings, it was hard to reduce them by much without totally replacing them - and I don't want to go vegetarian. I think, for me personally at least, getting some meat and dairy during the week is important. It helps me feel healthier, gives me protein, and aids me in making other healthy food options (milk in my oatmeal).
I did not take the pledge, because I think that I am already doing good on my animal product levels.
In summary, I do think it is important to be conscious of the amount of animal products you eat, but I think it is even more important to consider where you get them/how they are raised. A large majority of the beef I make at home comes from my boyfriend's uncle who raises cows in Michigan. And when I buy chicken I try my best to buy local if available, and free-range. This calculator doesn't take any of that into account when giving you your results.
How interesting that you're able to get your beef from your boyfriend's uncle. Also did your results indicate that you greatly impact the environment based off your diet? When I did mine, I never thought how much of an impact I made on the environment. It's some what devastating because just when you think your doing the right thing it seems like it is always something that proves other wise.
ReplyDeleteMine didn't really tell me if my results were making a negative impact or not, but I don't think they looked huge. I also think it is important to take this quiz with a grain of salt, just like the other ones we've done. We weren't able to be super accurate and sometimes I feel like they're trying to scare you more than anything. But, it is a good eye-opener to keep you aware of your diet, and realize that it does have effects on things other than your health.
ReplyDeleteWow, I think it's so cool that you get the majority of beef from your boyfriend's uncle's farm! I bet you get it at a discount too, huh. Do you know if your boyfriend's uncle feed the cows fertilized food? Or if they are chemically enhanced to get big and meaty?
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