Americans eat way too much meat. That needs to change.

I grew up in a family where a meal wasn’t a meal unless it had meat in it. By no means was my family unique, and meat remains a staple of American diets. In a recent poll by Ipsos, 89% of Americans include meat as part of their diet, consuming, on average, 347.26 grams, or about 3/4 of a pound, each day. The works out to be over 260 pounds of meat per person per year.

Of all the things we eat, meat has the worst impact on the environment (*except for venison. See caveat at the end of the post). Here is some data to show you how.

This chart from Our World in Data shows the amount of greenhouse gas emissions per 1000 kilocalories. You can see that beef production is by far the worst generator of emissions.

Most of the meat we eat is factory-farmed, which means it is produced using a CAFO model of production. CAFO means Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation. The United States Department of Agriculture defines a CAFO as an intensive animal feeding operation (AFO) in which over 1,000 animal units are confined for over 45 days a year. Somewhere between 90 and 99% of the eggs, beef, pork, and chicken that Americans eat come from CAFOs.

I’m sure you’ve seen something about the horrific conditions that animals are subjected to in CAFOs. There is also a long list of negative environmental health impacts associated with CAFOs, including,

Waste that pollutes water,
- “The amount of urine and feces produced by the smallest CAFO is equivalent to the quantity of urine and feces produced by 16,000 humans.” (Sierra Club)
- CAFOs produce more manure than we know what to do with, and the nutrients in that manure run off into and pollute rivers and lakes. Consequently, we’re seeing more harmful algal blooms and eutrophication, which kills wildlife and threatens human health. (Glibert PM)
Emissions that pollute air,
- “Over 168 gases are emitted from CAFO waste, including hazardous chemicals such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and methane.” (Sierra Club)
- Fecal dust and ammonia regularly sicken workers. “Animal confinement workers are subject to long-term lung and acute respiratory injuries from their work environments, and are exposed to asphyxiating gasses from manure.” (Civil Eats)

It’s hard to get precise data about waste generated by any particular CAFO because the Environmental Protection Agency has done a poor job of monitoring them, including here in Michigan.

Grassfed beef or organic free-range chicken production might seem a better option, and that may be true in some respects, but the one advantage that CAFOs have over grass farmed beef or free range chickens is that they are concentrated, meaning that less land is required to produce more meat. Advocates of regenerative farming or grassfed beef, or other methods of seemingly more humane and less polluting forms of animal production often fail to grapple with the incredible amounts of land that meat production requires. If we keep eating meat at the present rate, moving animals off of CAFOs and onto pasture means increasing pressure on forests. There’s only so much land on this planet, and “Beef requires 20 times more land and emits 20 times more GHG emissions per gram of edible protein than common plant proteins, such as beans.” (WRI, 6 Pressing Questions About Beef and Climate Change, Answered)

You don’t have to eliminate meat from your diet, but you should reduce it.

There’s no getting around it. Meat, no matter if it’s factory farmed or grassfed, has an outsized negative impact on the environment. If we are going to solve the climate crisis, our diets will necessarily have to change.

As a person who has reduced her meat intake dramatically over the last year, I’m going to share a few tips and tools that might make your journey to a better diet easier. I invite you to share your own tips and tools in the comments.

A better burger: I’m a big fan of burgers, but I’ve discovered that what I really like about them are ingredients other than the beef itself. I love a pan-fried brioche bun, pickles, slightly warmed tomatoes, a good balance of ketchup and mustard, and some lovely red onions. I keep all of those good fixings and substitute the meat with a spicy panko-breaded slab of tofu. I cut an extra firm block of tofu into four slabs, bread them, and fry them. One block of tofu makes four burgers. Laugh if you must, but it satisfies that burger craving every time.
Meat substitutes: Have you looked in the frozen food aisle of your local grocery lately? There are a lot of super-tasty meat substitute options that you can use to “trick” yourself into believing you’ve eaten a meal with meat in it. Here are a few that I like:

I get the same cravings for chicken sandwiches that I do for burgers. The chicken patties here are made from jackfruit. I like the taste of them, and, fingers crossed, what I’ve been reading about jackfruit being a sustainable alternative is actually true.

I use the ‘plantspired plant-based steak’ in stir fries and Asian noodle soup recipes and they are really good. At Meijer, these are found in the produce section, close to the tofu. I’ve eaten the Beyond Steak Seared Tips with homemade tortillas, sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes and guacamole….and it was tasty!

(I can hear some of you saying, “…but those are ultra-processed.” That’s true-ish. Lots of things in our diets are processed and I’m making informed decisions based on what I’ve learned about the impacts on the environment and the ethics of meat production.)

Eating more fungi, nuts, and vegetables that I like: I find myself paying a lot more attention to the texture of the food that I eat and cook it in ways that satisfies. I’ve been eating more mushrooms, putting nuts into pastas and salads, and eating a lot more potatoes, chickpeas, and sweet potatoes. I still eat eggs at least once a week (and feel especially good about that when I can get them from my suburban chicken-raising neighbor).

Online tools:

I subscribe to the Washington Post and they’ve recently added some features that make looking for vegetarian recipes easier. I understand that the New York Times has really good vegetarian and vegan recipes, too.
I’ve recently subscribed to Meat/Less, a newsletter that promises to “…help our readers set achievable goals to reduce meat consumption and have an impact on climate change and animal welfare (and eat healthier, to boot).”

There are probably a lot more resources that I’m not aware of. If you know of some, please share them in the comments.

We Americans have access to so many different kinds of food, and so many resources to help us make the transition to diets that are better for the planet. If you need to make the transition away from meat, create goals that work for you and your family.

I don’t think it is necessary to do it all at once; I’m still eating meat around twice a week and I’m aiming to reduce that even more this year. But, I guarantee you that it will be necessary to eat diets that contain a lot less meat and the sooner you can get going to reduce your intake, the less disruptive it will be for you down the line.

Thanks for reading!

Americans eat way too much meat. That needs to change.

You don’t have to eliminate meat from your diet, but you should reduce it.

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