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Meat, Wellness Sustainability By Caroline Crowley & Sofia Rodriguez
We both grew up eating a lot of meat. But a lot has changed since then for a number of reasons. Caroline is now a vegan, and although Sofia still eats meat, she has significantly reduced how much. So how did two meat-lovers end up here?
Your Health and the Health of the Environment:
What do they have in common? A Perspective from a Meat-Lover Turned Vegan By: Caroline Crowley
I’ll cut right to the chase — reducing your consumption of animal products will reduce your impact on the environment and improve your personal health. This doesn’t mean you have to go vegan or be a vegetarian, but there are plenty of small changes you can make in your diet to improve your health and the health of the environment. Before I came to college, I ate meat and animal products on a daily basis. I loved double bacon cheeseburgers, beefy, cheesy tacos and a good sirloin steak. I was aware that eating red meat had negative health impacts, and when I came to college I found out that the meat industry also had negative effects on the environment. At first, I was unaware of how large these impacts were. Maybe out of convenience for myself, I didn’t really look into them until last summer. I was listening to my favorite podcast at the time, How to Save a Planet, and learned that one-quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture and land use in an episode called “The Beef with Beef.” I decided to cut red meat out of my diet as much as possible that day. It seemed like a
23 Spring 2022
simple enough step I could take to make an impact on the environment, and it would be good for my health, too. In the end, I was right — it was a simple step and I soon eliminated red meat from my diet entirely. The idea of eating a double bacon cheeseburger actually makes me a little nauseous now. Once I cut out red meat, I felt lighter — but still completely satisfied — after my meals. It was a win-win situation. In just my first semester, I already felt better about my impacts on the environment, and I even felt better physically — I loved that I didn’t feel as tired after meals. Then, I enrolled in a class all about people, land and food. Shortly after I started the class, I stopped eating all animal products and transitioned to a fully vegan diet. A few facts from the course stuck out to me and made a huge impact on my decision. According to a study from 2013 by Emily Cassidy and colleagues called “Redefining agricultural yields: from tonnes to people nourished per hectare,” livestock production creates 18%
