I’m a vegetarian. But my husband’s not. And, go figure, my kids aren’t either. Which is exactly why I care about the meat I buy. Yes, I buy meat. I’d rather not, but if it’s coming into the house–and into my kids’ bodies–then I need to know exactly what I’m buying. And I not only want to know how it’s affecting my family’s health, I also care deeply about how it’s affecting our family’s environmental footprint (including climate change).

Enter Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) new Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change + Health. In it, EWG took a close look at how a variety of protein foods rank when their total, “cradle-to-grave” greenhouse gas emissions are calculated. Then we factored in the non-climate environmental impacts (like water pollution) and health effects of meat and confirmed that, indeed, not all meat is created equal.

Different foods generate different amounts of green house gases

Our lifecycle comparison shows that, pound for pound, lamb, beef, cheese, and pork generate the most greenhouse gases (GHGs) of the protein foods we looked at; beef emits four times as many GHGs as chicken! They also tend to be higher in saturated fat and have the worst overall environmental impacts because producing them requires the most resources, mainly chemical fertilizer, feed, fuel, pesticides, and water.

If you’re scratching your head, wondering how exactly eating meat generates GHGs, there are three main sources: Feed production, ruminant digestion, and manure. In other words, growing animal food, farting animal food, and pooping animal food. (Excuse our language, but it’s clearest–and likely more memorable–this way. Plus, my eight-year old son thinks it’s hilarious.) For a bite-sized description of the climate and environmental impacts of each stage of meat production (there are many: Growing feed, grazing, slaughtering, transporting all of it, eating, and wasting), see the meat lifecycle graphic on EWG’s Web site.

It’s Clear: We’re Eating Too Much Meat

For many, meat is a regular, familiar part of their diets. Eating meat in moderation can be a good source of complete protein and key vitamins and nutrients such as iron, zinc and vitamins B-12, B-6, and niacin. That said, we eat far more protein than we need: Kids get three to four times the recommended amount and adult men get twice the amount they need. And, of course, the nutritional benefits of meats can be reaped from other, less environmentally damaging food sources (like lentils and beans).

The scientific evidence is increasingly clear that eating too much meat–particularly red and processed meat–contributes to a wide variety of serious health problems like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and obesity. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), most human exposure to dioxins comes from food, almost entirely through animal fats. The best way to reduce the health risks associated with dioxins and other toxins is by limiting your dietary exposure to them.

Eating Less and Better Meat

If your health and the planet are on your “to do” list at all, you’ll accomplish a lot by trimming your portions, skipping it here and there (why not every Monday?), and choosing leaner, greener meat. Just like reducing home energy use or driving less, skipping meat once a week can make a meaningful difference in GHG emissions if we all do it. According to EWG’s calculations, if everyone in the U.S. chose a vegetarian diet, it would be the equivalent of taking 46 million cars off the road or not driving 555 billion miles. To present a likelier option, if everyone in the U.S. ate no meat or cheese just one day a week, it would be like not driving 91 billion miles–or taking 7.6 million cars off the road.

At the same time, keep in mind that although important for improving your health and reducing your personal carbon footprint (of which you’re, thankfully, the boss), eating less (or no) meat, by itself, won’t stop climate change or eliminate environmental damage. The fork is powerful, but not all-powerful. But don’t let that stop you. Wield it anyway and support policy change to invest in greener energy and cleaner, more sustainable food production.

EWG’s Tips for Meat Eaters: Finding the Good Stuff

Often, it’s not our goals (often good), but rather lack of specific, trustworthy knowledge about smart consumer choices that stands between us and our best intentions. Which is why EWG put together our top tips for leaner, greener meat shopping (we also have a wallet card, available on our Web site). If you buy less meat overall (our top tip for meat eaters), you can more easily afford healthier, greener meat.

When shopping, always read the labels (and check our label decoder)! Look for:

• Grass-fed or pasture-raised meat: Has fewer antibiotics and hormones and in some cases may have more nutrients and less fat; the animals live in more humane, open, sanitary conditions and well-managed systems reduce erosion and water pollution, conserve carbon and preserve biodiversity and wildlife.
• Lean cuts: Less fat will likely mean fewer cancer-causing toxins in your body.
• No antibiotics or hormones: Reduces unnecessary exposure and helps keep human medicines effective.
• Certified organic: Keeps pesticides, chemical fertilizers and genetically modified foods off the land, out of the water and out of our bodies.
• Certified humane: Means no growth hormones or antibiotics and ensures that animals were raised with enough space and no cages or crates.
• Unprocessed, nitrite-free, and low sodium: Avoid lunchmeats, hot dogs, prepackaged smoked meats, and chicken nuggets.
• Sustainable seafood: Avoid airfreighted fish, most farmed salmon, and consult Monterey Bay Aquarium’s list of the most sustainable seafood choices.
• Local: Supports your local economy and protects farm land.

If you can’t find these healthier products (we know that in some places it takes a little hunting), ask your grocer to carry them (as more and more people ask, they will become more readily available). And consult eatwellguide or eatwild, both terrific online resources, to find a nearby store with greener, pasture-raised meat.

Wasting less and eating less and greener meat is a powerful investment in yourself and our planet–that’s easier to make than you might think. Start today by taking EWG’s pledge to eat less meat. (and hey, it’s Monday, why not make today your first Meatless Monday?). It’s good to be part of the solution, isn’t it?

More Americans are demanding higher quality meat–animals fed appropriate, antibiotic-free diets on small farms and slaughtered humanely–and they are choosing to eat less of it, too. Whether turned off by endless recalls, or turned on by the health and environmental benefits of eating less meat, growth in campaigns like Meatless Monday show a powerful shift in the Zeitgeist.

Meanwhile Big Meat is taking on the Environmental Protection Agency to maintain its right to let manure run into our waterways, as it defends the excess antibiotic use (80 percent of antibiotics used in the U.S. are given to livestock), inhumane practices, and consolidation of the industry as the only way to feed the world. The beef industry has even invested in a communications degree that aims to revitalize the consumer image of industrial beef.

The conversation around how we bring meat to the table is multifaceted and is the subject of a lively discussion on April 14 at New York University entitled “What’s the Matter With Mass-Produced Meat?”

The conversation around how we bring meat to the table is multifaceted and is the subject of a lively discussion on April 14 at New York University entitled “What’s the Matter With Mass-Produced Meat?”

Co-sponsored by Kitchen Table Talks and Eating Liberally, the event will feature Daniel Imhoff, editor of CAFO: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories, Michael Moss, the New York Times investigative reporter whose exposé on E. coli-tainted industrial beef, “The Burger That Shattered Her Life,” won a Pulitzer Prize; and Marion Nestle, NYU nutrition professor who served on the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, and author of Food Politics and What to Eat, among other books. I am honored to moderate the conversation and welcome your questions below in the comment section or send me a tweet @civileater in advance of the panel.

The discussion will take place at Fales Library at New York University, 70 Washington Square So, Third Floor from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Please RSVP to rsvp@library.nyu.edu or call 212.992.7050. This event is free and open to the public, but please be mindful when you reserve a space as seating is limited. Books will be available for sale and there will be a signing following the event. Sustainable food and refreshments will be provided by Northern Spy.

More about the team behind the event:

Eating Liberally is a social network whose aim is to swell the ranks of ecologically enlightened “food citizens” through spreading the word about books, films, and other projects that promote an alternative, plant-based food chain powered by the sun instead of Sunoco.

Kitchen Table Talks is a regular conversation series about the American food system. Its mission is to build community and exchange knowledge and ideas that lead to specific actions to make meaningful improvements in our food system.

Photo: Nourishing Our Children Photos via Flickr

Meatless Monday has been getting an awful lot of attention lately, with Oprah’s vocal support and the food services giant Sodexo’s rollout only the most recent examples. But what is Meatless Monday, really? Is it a rallying cry for health, a food marketing ploy, a blogger-led viral movement, a student activist cabal, a celebrity-driven bandwagon, an environmentalist’s dream, or a meat packer’s nightmare? I’d say it’s a little bit of all of these things and perhaps that’s its appeal.

Launched in 2003 by founder Sid Lerner and backed by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Meatless Monday has always been about health: cutting meat one day a week to reduce the risk of chronic preventable conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. In 2009, we extended our message to focus on the environmental as well as the health benefits. Michael Pollan went on Oprah on Earth Day that year and said his own family goes meatless on Mondays. That fall, the entire Baltimore public school system adopted Meatless Monday. More school districts, campuses, cities, restaurants, worksites, and other groups have followed suit.

But that only scratches the surface. What I find much more interesting, and revealing, is the fact that two years ago there was one Meatless Monday blogger–Kim O’Donnel–and now there are well over 150 who’ve started doing weekly Meatless Monday features. We get e-mails from groups and individuals all around the world hoping to join the growing international programs that already exist from Taiwan to Brazil to Canada. As we furiously tap away at our computers here at Meatless Monday’s headquarters in New York City, we’ve long ago come to realize this thing is way bigger than we are.

Why now? For one, it’s a pretty easy ask. It’s one day a week; it’s not veganism, nor is it even vegetarianism. It’s merely a suggestion to go plant-based on Mondays. That’s it. We keep the message intentionally simple, to make it accessible to all, in the hopes of reaching as many people as possible. In these polemical, partisan times, perhaps moderation is appealing. In that sense, we’re very much in line with the USDA Dietary Guidelines 2010, with its moderate message encouraging Americans to eat more vegetables and fruit.

Further, Meatless Monday is about choice. We encourage adopters, whenever possible, to serve meatless entrees alongside meat entrees. Recently, Bowdoin College held a Meatless Monday event, serving up tasty plant-based options to introduce students to the campaign. The organizers chose to offer only meatless options, and several students protested what they perceived was their power of choice being taken away. But we want to give people more options, not less. We’re all about getting people to try new healthy foods and veggie-based recipes. It’s not about taking away–it’s really about adding. That’s an American notion–combining democratic discretion and positive messaging–if ever there was one.

Also, we want this to be your movement. We’re fans of folks like Nicolette Hahn Niman who encourage consumers to eat less meat, but better (sustainably raised) meat. But we leave it up to our adopters to define Meatless Monday. We work with so many different groups–cities, schools, campuses, restaurants, worksites, chefs, dietitians–that it makes sense to allow each one to shape its message to its specific audience. This flexibility allows people to feel personally invested in our campaign (which is vital in building a national movement).

Perhaps the most important factor in the growth of Meatless Monday is, well, anxiety. There’s a lot of worry out there over large, looming crises: climate change, the obesity epidemic, food safety, environmental degradation, animal rights, budgetary woes, etc. Meatless Monday is a direct, personal response to these global fears, something we can all do that positively impacts these issues. In this way, we can tap into the energy and support of the many groups worldwide fighting these causes, making their platforms our platforms.

Experts are forecasting record U.S. meat prices on the horizon. At a time of high unemployment and economic uncertainty, that’s bad news for our meat-loving nation. Americans are going to have to start eating a little less meat. From this perspective alone, the time is right for Meatless Monday. Ultimately, after all the elaborate justifications and cross-competing agendas, Meatless Monday is about one simple thing: eating more vegetables. Isn’t that something we can all get behind?

A number of Sodexo facilities including the Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Cobblestone Café conducted their own Meatless Monday campaigns. However, starting this month Sodexo expanded the initiative to all of its more than 900 hospital clients, “as part of its ongoing effort to promote health and wellness.” In the spring, the company will offer menus and materials to all of its corporate and government clients and in the fall it will officially implement Meatless Monday at its “Sodexo-served” colleges and schools.

Sodexo joins a growing list of Meatless Monday supporters. Some of the most recent high-profile Meatless Monday converts include Sir Paul McCartney; Mario Batali, Celebrity Chef and restaurateur; Laurie David, An Inconvenient Truth producer; and dozens of municipalities, universities, colleges, and restaurants.

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Center for a Livable Future helped launch Meatless Monday back in 2003. The campaign’s primary focus is to reduce America’s saturated fat consumption by 15 percent, following the recommendations of the Healthy People 2010 report issued by then U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher in 2000.

The major source for saturated fat in the American diet comes from meat and high-fat dairy. “Cutting meat out one day week can help Americans reach the reduction goal with little effort,” says Dr. Robert S. Lawrence, Director, Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF).

While Meatless Monday awareness has increased, so has the need to reduce overall meat consumption. The 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee has already called on Americans to “shift food intake patterns to a more plant-based diet.” Research shows that diets high in red or processed meat may increase the risk of mortality while diets high in vegetables, fruits and whole grains may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

The majority of the meat we eat in America comes from intensive food animal production facilities, which are extremely resource intensive and pose major pollution risks. Dr. Lawrence says, “the impact on the environment can be substantial if we are successful in having a 15 percent reduction in meat consumption.”

To give you an idea of the environmental impacts Dr. Lawrence is talking about below is a short list of some sobering statistics:

• It takes an estimated 2,000 gallons of water [PDF] to produce one pound of feedlot beef. (Kreith, M. : 1991 Water inputs in California food production.) Based on EPA data that is enough water to meet a family of four’s indoor water needs for approximately a week.

• According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), agricultural operations, including animal confinement operations, are a significant source of water pollution. States estimate that agriculture contributes to the impairment of at least 173,629 river miles, 3,183,159 lake acres and 2,971 estuary miles.

• Of the antibiotics sold in 2009 for both people and food animals almost 80 percent were reserved for livestock and poultry. Producers often administer antibiotics in continuous low-dosages through feed or water to increase the speed at which their animals grow. The CDC has stated that non-therapeutic antibiotic use in food animals “may be more likely to contribute to the development of resistant bacteria which can create disease strains that may put human populations at risk.”

• There are many other environmental risks that industrial food animal production can pose, including the contribution of greenhouse gases.

The point of the Meatless Monday campaign is not to make people feel guilty about eating meat. Rather it is designed to encourage everyone to eat in moderation. Nicolette Hahn Niman, who, with her husband Bill, raises beef cattle on pasture and heritage turkeys, captured the concept well:

“We think that to really improve the way food is being produced and the way people are eating in this country people should eat less meat but eat better meat. All food from animals—meat, dairy, fish, eggs—should be treated as something special. Anyone who is raising food animals in the traditional healthy way, without relying on industrial methods, drugs and chemicals, is someone who will benefit from people embracing that approach. We think the Meatless Monday campaign is part of a shift in attitudes about meat, towards something that is precious not something that is consumed without thought or in enormous quantities.”

She had her epiphany at the dinner table. It was just a year and a half ago now. Dessert was lone gone, but her kids were still at the table talking. She sat back in her chair, and realized: oh my gosh, this is the one thing I’ve done right as a parent. She reflected how it hadn’t happened by itself. It had been a conscious effort to create family dinner rituals at home. Perhaps, she wondered, she could share this with other people…

Laurie David, producer of the Academy Award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, and author of The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming, is fired up about family dinners. She’s used her epiphany to write a wonderfully inspiring, and deeply enlightening book that demonstrates how family dinners have the potential–if we embrace them–to be so much more than just, “Hey Mom, what’s for dinner?”

The Family Dinner argues that parents face immense challenges in reaching their kids today, and yet the daily ritual of family dinner, the simple act of eating, talking and sharing at the dinner table, can help bridge the divide. Chock full of great ways to connect with your kids, one meal at a time, it uses recipes, fun table games, the advice of renowned experts, Laurie’s own lessons learned with former husband Larry David and their two daughters, and a whole lot of love, it makes the case that you should stay at the dinner table sharing with your kids, and not just run off to see another rerun of, well, Seinfeld…

One of your contributors, physician Dean Ornish, writes this book is a ‘recipe for joy, health and healing.’ Did you set out to write such a recipe?

I love that quote, I think it’s true in retrospect. But no, I didn’t write with that lofty purpose. I did, however, hope to share what I’ve learned as a parent. There’s so much in our culture today that separates us, that tears at the family fabric: the TV, the computer, the cellphone. It’s getting harder and harder to connect with our kids. Luckily, family rituals can come to the rescue.

What does the ritual of dinner mean, why is it so important?

Well, dinner isn’t just about the food. It’s just as much about the conversation. It’s about gratitude. It’s about laughter. It’s about learning. Studies show that the dinner table is the number one place where we learn about family history and lore. It’s also the place where we get civilized. And where we civilize our children. Where they learn to form and air their opinions, and to listen, and to reform their opinions. Where we teach kids the things they need to become productive members of their community.

I didn’t understood this at first–it only came to me in the process of writing the book. I discovered the staggering research that everything a parent is concerned with, or worries about–alcohol, drugs, nutrition, promiscuity, grades–can be improved by sitting down for family dinner. By eating and sharing together.

Did you start early with your own kids?

As soon as they could sit in their high chairs. At first, I was just desperate for some happy family moments. I keyed in on the dinner hour as the time to grab them. Listen, parenting is hard. It’s challenging. You need to grab happy moments. You can’t wait for them. You need to create them! I’m very grateful for this realization. Because when kids get older, it gets much harder. And when kids enter their teens, that’s when most people stop their family rituals. Which is exactly when they need them more than ever! Dinner is love.

So what can parents do to encourage family dinner rituals?

Start small. It’s all there in the book. Begin by slowing down. Turn off the distractions. Encourage everyone to pitch in. Try conversation starters. Listen, air opinions, ask follow-ups. Make it fun with games and laughter. Don’t miss a teaching opportunity. Repeat tomorrow.

Was Larry down with all this?

Larry didn’t have great role models growing up, which I talk about in the book. He didn’t have many happy dinner memories. His family ate to refuel, then back out the door. But yes, he did go along with it. I’m sort of a strong presence–he didn’t have much choice! But Larry needed to be educated too. He didn’t see the value of dinner conversation at first. There were many nights when I’d kick him under the table–participate, participate!

How were your own childhood dinner memories?

Well, I think that’s the reason I place so much importance on this ritual. Family dinners for me weren’t so happy. It was like, who’s going to cry first? Who’s going to fight whom? How do I get rid of the peas in my mouth. How quickly can I get from this table, out the door, and on my bike. I didn’t want to repeat history. My hope was to gradually create, through trial-and-error, my own ideal of what family dinners could be.

Family dinners invariably involve food. You have delicious-looking recipes in your book, tell us about them.

All the recipes were developed by Kirstin Uhrenholdt, who grew up on a fruit farm in Denmark. When dinner was falling by the wayside, Larry and I working full time, long long hours, I was fortunate that he gave me the gift of hiring somebody to help us cook. We got lucky–Kirstin turned out to be this incredibly gifted, loving person. Everything she touches turns beautiful. She taught me what I never learned from my mother.

One of the important concepts of this book is you cook for the family. These are all family recipes. This is family food–not kid food. Leading from that, the second major food concept is participation. Ideally, everyone at the table should help prepare the table in some way. Everyone benefits when we have a more personal relationship with the food we eat.

For example, at our house, when we make soup, we take the chicken out, and then chop up fresh vegetables. Then we put everything on the Lazy Susan, pour out the broth into individual bowls, and everyone makes their own soup. That way we all participate in the meal. We all feel we’ve helped make it. Which means we’ll ultimately eat more (and waste less), and take greater pride in the meal.

Let me ask, are we facing a food-quality crisis in this country?

Once you become aware of how we produce the great majority of food in the U.S. and you’re feeding your kids–well, you’re forced to wake up fast. You find yourself asking, is this really healthy? As a responsible parent, and even as a responsible human being, you have to say this may not be the best choice.

When it comes to meat, I don’t think it’s about labels, about either-or. You don’t have to be a vegetarian. You might just want to consider being a meat-reducer. In the old days, it was a once-a-week special. Now we’re eating meat literally three times a day. That’s incredibly unhealthy, and totally unsustainable.

Which is why I really like the Meatless Monday idea. What I find so exciting is it’s something everyone can do. It’s an easy ask, that benefits you and the planet. Plus, I think if you eat less meat, you’re going to enjoy it more. It’s sort of like when I was a kid. You had to wait for the right season to get a particular fresh fruit or fresh vegetables. How amazing that first strawberry tasted in June! Everything just tastes better when it’s eaten in season and hasn’t been trucked 1,500 miles.

Originally published on Huffington Post

Join Laurie David in conversation about her book and the importance of family dinners in San Francisco at the Commonwealth Club on Tuesday, November 9. Tickets can be purchased here.

Last week, Kitchen Table Talks gathered in San Francisco to discuss “The Meat of the Matter”: How our food system is structured to support industrial animal production and what alternative solutions exist, including reducing our meat consumption and supporting sustainable ranchers. We also heard new data underscoring meat’s deleterious environmental effects.

Leading us in conversation was Kari Hamerschlag, a Senior Agriculture Analyst working in the Environmental Working Group’s California office, who explained how she came to work on this subject 25 years ago after reading Francis Moore Lappé’s Diet for a Small Planet: “I was struck by the information in the book about the massive resources—water, fertilizer and pesticides, and fuel that goes into growing the feed that goes into producing a pound of beef and how highly inefficient and environmentally harmful the process is to get the protein we need,” Hamerschlag said. “Lappé argued convincingly to me that it would be much better to use at least some of those resources to grow food for hungry people rather than for animals.” She was so inspired that when she graduated from college, she drove cross-country and went to work for Lappé’s institute—Food First.

In Hamerschlag’s view, Lappé’s arguments are now more relevant than ever as meat production is central to a growing global water, energy, climate change—and food crisis. Next year, EWG will publish a “Meateaters’ Guide to Climate Change and Health,” which will quantify the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) associated with a typical serving of beef or pork or chicken—from the production of the fertilizer to the processing, transport and cooking, and waste of that product—so that the public can understand with greater certainty how changes in our individual diets affect the planet.

Bottom line: Eat lower on the food chain. Factory farmed lamb and beef, have the highest GHG impact—more than twice that of pork and chicken and more than five times that of veggie proteins—like beans, lentils and tofu, which have very low emissions. Cheese consumption has the third largest impact, when compared by weight. Waste accounts for about one-third of overall emissions associated with a pound of beef or chicken. “This is because a tremendous amount of resources go into producing wasted food which then ends up in the landfill generating additional methane,” Hamerschlag said. “Besides reducing our demand, reducing waste would be the other critical thing we need to do as a society to combat climate change and reduce the negative impact of agriculture.”

Hamerschlag explained the myriad problems with industrial animal agriculture: Nearly 149 million acres (or half of all crop land) is used for growing animal feed for U.S. livestock. Roughly 17 billion pounds of nitrogen fertilizer is needed to grow the feed—which generates nitrous oxide, a GHG 300 times as potent as carbon dioxide. “The pesticides and fertilizers often end up as runoff which pollutes our groundwater and waterways,” she said. “We now have a ‘dead zone’ in the Gulf of Mexico the size of New Jersey—where no marine life can live due to the lack of oxygen, largely a result of the phosphorous and nitrogen fertilizer used for grain production. And all of this grain is subsidized with our tax dollars—$45 billion worth over the past 10 years.”

Animals also generate huge amounts of manure, which creates nitrous oxide and methane, a GHG gas 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide. “Iowa’s 5,000 confined hog facilities generate over 50 million tons of raw waste or 16.7 tons of animal manure for every resident,” she said. “But unlike human waste, waste from animals is not generally regulated and the manure, which is either stored or spread on the fields, can leach all kinds of pollutants—such as antibiotics, metals like arsenic and selenium, and especially nitrogen and phosphorous directly into groundwater that affects drinking water.”

Hamerschlag noted that the meats that are most energy intensive are also worse for our health and may be contributing to the increased burden of chronic and acute disease in the U.S. Between 1950 and 2007, per capita meat consumption in the U.S. increased an astounding 78 pounds per person per year and world meat consumption is expected to double by 2050. The health consequences from the overconsumption of meat—obesity, coronary heart disease, and cancer—are now well documented. In addition, the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in animals (70 percent of all antibiotics used in America are used in meat production) is also posing a serious threat to human health.

Kim O’Donnel, a trained chef, longtime journalist, and the author of the new book, The Meat Lover’s Meatless Cookbook, took the conversation from the theoretical to the personal: She grew up eating meat at every meal (her mother gave her T-bone steaks to gnaw on when she was teething as a baby), battled high cholesterol, and lost her father to a heart attack when he was 37. Her mother is now with a partner who loves meat and who has had several heart attacks.

O’Donnel explained the importance of reducing meat consumption for health, personal, and environmental reasons and said she wrote the book for her mother’s partner and for others, the hypothetical “Mr. Sausage”—the person who can’t imagine not eating meat every day, several times a day. “The idea is that you can still have your meat—still have your T-bone if you want it,” she said. “But I wanted to give creative, delicious ways for meat eaters, like myself, to take at least one day off a week from eating meat. And once you start, you feel better and your body will thank you.” She noted that reducing meat consumption by just 15 percent is good for your health and the planet.

O’Donnel’s own journey crystallized when the environmental impacts of meat eating were made clear in the 2006 United Nation publication, Livestock’s Long Shadow. “I was struck by a comment made by Nobel Peace Prize winner and UN climate expert Rajendra Pachauri that one of the most important things you can do to help the planet is not trade in your gas guzzler for a Prius, but go meat-free once a week,” O’Donnel said.

Her book has 52 menus (one for each week of the year), organized seasonally. She eats meatless several times a week and noted that even her mother is cooking less meat-centric meals. “I want people to get into the kitchen and put these ideas into practice,” O’Donnel said. “A little bit at a time and we can chew a little bit less meat.” Noting that one of the most well-known of meat-eaters, Bill Clinton, has recently professed his new plant-based diet, O’Donnel explained the trend around eating less meat and the growth of Meatless Monday, an initiative of Healthy Monday and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

From eating less meat, to eating “better” meat, Marissa Guggiana, the author of Primal Cuts: Cooking with America’s Best Butchers and president of Sonoma Direct, a family business providing sustainably raised meats, explained the importance of supporting small, sustainable ranchers, such as California’s Marin Sun Farms and Prather Ranch. She explained the expense and complication of raising and slaughtering meat and how local cattle ranchers must rely on the Bay Area’s last remaining slaughterhouse, Rancho Veal in Petaluma, built 80 years ago, or send their meat off to a larger Midwest slaughterhouse.

Guggiana detailed how in the last 20 years, slaughterhouses have consolidated (from 1976 to 1996, the number of federally inspected plants processing beef decreased by more than half), and have grown from facilities that killed fewer than 100,000 animals a year to ones that are designed to kill 10 times as many. “Doing less bad is different than doing good,” Guggiana pointed out, referring to the current status of slaughterhouses. “The USDA sees the need for more affordable and expandable infrastructure and has created guidelines for mobile slaughter units, after seeing the success of many, like the Island Grown Farmers Cooperative in Washington state,” Guggiana noted.

A lively conversation ensued about the importance of supporting local ranchers and what “sustainable” ranching means by learning to ask meaningful questions from retailers: Who grew this livestock? Where was it raised? What did it eat? How was it treated? Was it purchased from the farmer or aggregated by a middleman? And of course: Was it treated with non-therapeutic antibiotics? (Guggiana also wrote this guide to understanding some meat labels out there, such as “free range” and “grass fed.”) The question of ethical eating of meat was raised and folks brainstormed ways to bring the meatless message to a wider audience—especially those outside of the Bay Area—and how to support farmers. One participant suggested a “Farmer Friday” along the lines of Meatless Monday.

In the end, all three panelists gave timely recommendations for direct action. O’Donnel urged everyone to keep it simple and take incremental steps, and if you live alone, to cook with others. Guggiana noted that it’s important to enjoy eating and slow down and taste your food, while learning how food was made. “When you taste non-industrial meat, you’ll want to support ranchers who’re doing the right thing, and be willing to pay a higher price and eat it less often,” she said.

Hamerschlag ended by noting that changing our consumption is important, but changing our policies would have an even greater impact. “We need to reduce subsidies for animal production by reforming the subsidy system that underwrites feed production and when farmers do get subsidies, they need to play by certain environmental rules to protect the soil and water,” she said. “We need to elect politicians who have the courage to enact and enforce climate change policy. But when our politicians don’t listen, we need to lead by example. Not everyone can buy a Prius—or put solar panels on their homes—but we all can reduce our meat and dairy consumption and go meatless on Mondays, and perhaps on Thursday and Fridays, as well. Besides helping the climate and our environment, it’s good for our health, our waistlines, and our pocketbooks.”

Photo: Skinnyde via flickr

Food news hound Kim O’Donnel is often ahead of the culinary curve.

In a longtime online gig for The Washington Post, the seasoned journalist began blogging about all things edible and conducting kitchen chats before such venues took off in gastronomical cyber circles.

She started Canning Across America before pickling and preserving D.I.Y.ers turned up in a photo spread in the New York Times Magazine.

And she was one of the first mainstream reporters to cover the meat-free Monday phenomenon.

She began writing about the subject for the Post a couple of years ago in a recipe-focused column that proved the impetus for her new cookbook, The Meat Lover’s Meatless Cookbook: Vegetarian Recipes Carnivores Will Devour (Da Capo Press, $18.95).

The unapologetically omniverous O’Donnel, who thoroughly enjoys roast chicken, pork shoulder, and a juicy burger, earned her chef chops from the Institute of Culinary Education (on a James Beard Foundation scholarship no less). O’Donnel, who has written for Real Simple, The Huffington Post, True/Slant, and Civil Eats, says her book isn’t intended for devout vegetarians.

There are already plenty of classic tomes geared to that group, she notes, though herbivores will likely find dishes that make them happy in her book’s pages.

Rather, she wants to bring confirmed carnivores into the fold with satisfying recipes that won’t earn her the rabbit food rap. Flesh eaters take note: There’s no lentil-nut loaf among the offerings here. No sprouts or faux meat either. We’re talking hearty fare.

Every recipe had to pass the Kim O’Donnel test: This is a gal who includes a photo of herself as a toddler happily going to town on a T-bone on the back of her business card. (Nowadays, she wants to know where meat she eats comes from and how it was raised.)

So she knows her audience. “I want people who can’t imagine going a day without eating meat to give this a try and see if it doesn’t expand their horizons,” says O’Donnel, in an interview last summer at her home in Alki Beach in Seattle, where egrets and seals are frequent visitors.

“I’m not into food rules and I’m not asking people to learn a whole new language or set of skills in the kitchen,” adds the host of Table Talk, a weekly cooking chat on Culinate. “I’m just suggesting that they make an incremental change to diversify their diet and include less meat in the mix.”

O’Donnel is optimistic, despite the fact that recent research reveals that many Americans rarely let a veggie pass their lips. The Centers for Disease Control, for instance, found that less than a third of American adults eat three or more vegetables a day.

Still, she’s hoping that if the steak-loving set come along for the ride, they’ll see, as she did, that there’s a world of flavors in veg-centric cuisine that can take the rut out of any cook’s recipe repertoire.

The guide is arranged a little differently from your typical cookbook. There’s 52 menus, one for each week of the year, organized by season, rather than chapters on different courses. The 95 recipes are, where appropriate, designated gluten-free, vegan, dairy-optional, kid-friendly, and leftover bonus, so you can tailor what you cook to your needs and those of others joining you at the table.

As for many, O’Donnel, 44, decided to try life with less meat for health, personal, and environmental reasons. She’s battled high cholesterol since her teens. Her dad died young from heart disease.

And she was struck by a comment made by Nobel Peace Prize winner and UN climate expert Rajendra Pachauri that one of the most important things you can do to help the planet is not trade in your gas guzzler for a Prius, but go meat-free once a week.

These days, she goes meatless, on average, about three times a week. That means there are a lot more legumes, grains, and produce on her plate now. “I don’t think in terms of looking for a stand-in for meat,” she says. “I’m just looking for a good mix of protein, complex carbs, veg and fruit.”

She’s a big fan of beans of all kinds and sees nothing wrong with eating eggs for supper (a concept whole-heartedly endorsed by this writer). From her cookbook selection she counts Potpie with Cheddar Biscuit Crust and Sweet Potato Black Bean Chili as two meals likely to win over meat lovers in a heart beat.

O’Donnel is in good company on the cut-back-on-meat bandwagon. Launched in 2003, Meatless Monday is an initiative of New York-based nonprofit Healthy Monday, in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The day-off-from-meat campaign is an attempt to help Americans cut their saturated fat intake by 15 percent. (Mondays, at the start of the week, are considered a good day to set intentions.)

Vegetarian cookbook scribes Mollie Katzen and Deborah Madison are among a growing group of chefs who champion using meat as a flavor accent to a meal, if at all. Even hardcore carnivores like restauranteur Mario Batali have embraced Meatless Monday.

But O’Donnel, a recent West Coast transplant looking for more balance in her life,  has a touch of the zen about her. She’s not aggressively trying to convert carnivores.

Going meatless simply makes her feel better, she says, and she thinks other eaters might like to discover that too. Since she made the switch to a more plant-based way of eating O’Donnel pays more attention to what she cooks and turns out more flavorful food that costs less than a meal with meat. Who can argue against that?

Next month, this cookbook author begins a bimonthly column for USA Today called “The Family Kitchen.” It’s a safe bet that O’Donnel will bring meat-free meals, sans heavy-handed sermonizing or dietary dogma, to this middle American audience, simply making her case for cooking vegetarian recipes without sacrificing sustenance, taste, or texture.

Bay Area readers: O’Donnel will appear at 18 Reasons for a Meatless Monday dinner and talk tonight. She’ll also be talking up the merits of an eat-less-meat life at Kitchen Table Talks the following evening. Click here to find out about other upcoming events and appearances.

Originally published on Lettuce Eat Kale

Photo: Myra Kohn

Industrial animal agriculture and meat production and consumption have become central issues of our time. Between 1950 and 2007, per capita meat consumption in the U.S. increased an astounding 78 pounds per person per year and world meat consumption is expected to double by 2050. The health consequences from the overconsumption of meat—obesity, coronary heart disease, and cancer—are now well documented.

The 2006 United Nation publication, Livestock’s Long Shadow articulated the environmental impact of industrial animal production—and a new study further estimates that livestock farming on its own—disregarding all other human activity—could negatively tip the balance for climate change and habitat destruction by mid-century.

Between the serious environmental and public health and food safety issues associated with Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)—known for their disregard for animal welfare, misuse of pharmaceuticals, pollution and mismanagement of waste, and concentrated corporate ownership; the importance of alternatives such as sustainable ranching; and the debate as to whether we should eat meat at all, lies an important conversation worth having regarding our role in meat’s global and local impact.

Join us for the next Kitchen Table Talks in San Francisco on Tuesday, October 26, 2010 to discuss “The Meat of the Matter,” where we will engage our community in a thoughtful discussion about this personal and very political issue. We will talk about how our current food system is structured to support industrial meat production, share new data underscoring meat’s deleterious environmental effects, learn ways to creatively reduce our meat consumption, and offer some alternative solutions to the industrial food system.

Joining us in conversation will be Kari Hamerschlag, a Senior Agriculture Analyst working in the Environmental Working Group’s California office. Prior to working with EWG, Kari worked for many years as a sustainable food policy consultant in the Bay Area, including a year long stint running a Farm Bill campaign for the California Coalition for Food and Farming.

Also joining us will be Kim O’Donnel, a trained chef, longtime journalist, and the author of the new book, The Meat Lover’s Meatless Cookbook. Formerly of The Washington Post, Kim has also written for many other publications and will begin writing a regular column for USA Today in November. She’s also a regular contributor to Culinate, where she hosts a weekly chat. In her work, Kim combines reportage and analysis on where and how our food is raised and grown with practical tips and advice on the kitchen life. Kim is also the founder of Canning Across America, a collective dedicated to the revival of preserving food.

Marissa Guggiana is the author of Primal Cuts: Cooking with America’s Best Butchers ; president of Sonoma Direct, a family business providing sustainably raised meats; and the co-founder of The Butcher’s Guild, a new organization to promote the art and interests of America’s sustainable butchers. Marissa is an editor of Meatpaper, a fellow with Roots of Change , and also sits on the board of Ag Innovations Network, an NGO that facilitates communication for stakeholders in regional food systems.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Viracocha , 998 Valencia Street @ 21st Street, San Francisco

Food and drink at 6:30 p.m.; Discussion at 7 p.m.

Kitchen Table Talks is a joint venture of CivilEats and 18 Reasons , a non-profit that promotes conversation between its San Francisco Mission neighborhood and the people who feed them. Space is limited, so please RSVP. A $10 suggested donation is requested at the door, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Sustainable food and refreshments will be provided, courtesy of Bi-Rite Market and Shoe Shine Wine.

Photo: Martin Gommel

Mr. Secretary, I was wondering if it bothered you… that… you were talking about the importance of the nutrition for the school children… and I was wondering if it bothered you that school districts like Baltimore, Maryland institute Meatless Mondays… not letting the children have protein in the diet by doing that. Does that bother you?

Seriously? He thinks Baltimore City Schools are denying kids their recommended daily allowance of protein? I hate to break it to you Mr. Riter, but meat isn’t the only food that contains protein. The United States is among the very few wealthy nations in the world where people derive the majority of their dietary protein from animal sources. The global average is 30% of dietary protein from animal sources, including dairy and eggs, and 70% from grains, vegetables, and fruit.

If Mr. Riter had bothered to contact the Baltimore City Schools he would have found that each meat-free meal contains more than the amount of protein required by the USDA. My guess is that Mr. Riter jumped to his mistaken conclusion after reading misleading quotes from a meat lobby organization, or he really needs to brush up on his basic biochemistry.

Not being a biochemist myself, I wanted to confirm with an expert that eating a meat-free diet one day a week in no way denies a child of a well-balanced nutritious meal. So I emailed Dr. Marion Nestle, a nationally renowned food expert and professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. Dr. Nestle responded:

Consider it confirmed.

But what about the claims that we need to eat animal proteins because they contain certain “necessary” amino acids that vegetable proteins don’t? Professor Nestle replied:

Prepare for a biochemistry lecture: all proteins are made of the same amino acids. ALL. No exceptions. The difference between animal and vegetable proteins is in the content of certain amino acids. If vegetable proteins are mixed, the differences get made up. Even if they are not mixed, all you have to do to get the right amount of the low amino acids is to eat more of that food. There is no ‘need’ for animal proteins at all.

However, Dr. Nestle did say:

Meat makes a huge difference in the diets of deprived kids in developing countries not only because of its protein, but also because its nutrients are sometimes more absorbable than those from vegetables. For American kids, who eat plenty of calories, it’s far less important.

By the way, if Mr. Riter had actually tried to find out what the kids were being served, he would have found animal proteins are still on the menu. Below is a sample of the meals Baltimore kids are eating on Mondays. You might notice that the meals contain dairy products.

Meatless Monday Menu 1

Veggie Lasagna or Grilled Cheese w/ Tomato

Mixed Vegetables, Steamed Broccoli, Pineapple Tidbits & Fresh Fruit

1%, Chocolate, Straw- berry, Non-fat milk

Meatless Monday Menu 2

Pasta Primavera with mozzarella sticks or Grilled Cheese w/ Tomato

Romaine Salad, Garlic Bread, Steamed Broccoli & Fresh Fruit

1%, Chocolate, Straw- berry, Non-fat milk

Meatless Monday Menu 3

Veggie Quesadilla on a Whole Wheat Tortilla or Grilled Cheese w/ Tomato

Black beans and rice, Refried beans, Corn, & Fresh Fruit

1%, Chocolate, Straw- berry, Non-fat milk

Regarding Mr. Riter’s leading question, Secretary Vilsack didn’t bite. Instead he made it clear that all of our schools are feeding students foods that are packed with too much saturated fats and salt:

It’s fairly clear from the [recently released] Institute of Medicine study and other additional studies that we’ve got far too much sodium, far too much saturated fat in the diets of children, and far too many discretionary calories. The result is that youngsters are not getting the nutrition they need and we need to do a better job.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that Feedstuffs, a popular agribusiness newspaper, recently took the time to get most of the story straight regarding the Meatless Monday program at Baltimore City Public Schools. Here’s an excerpt for an article published today:

Interestingly… Anthony Geraci, director of food and nutrition services for BCPS, doesn’t see Meatless Monday as having anything to do with denying kids meat. In his opinion, Meatless Monday is simply a marketing ploy he has adopted to expose kids to more plant-based proteins.

Feedstuffs’ Trent Loos, a rancher and radio show host, traveled to Baltimore and posted a video of his interview with Geraci. Geraci is a very persuasive person. He obviously won Loos over with his ambitious plan to change the way Baltimore students think about food.

ABC World News with Charles Gibson aired a comprehensive piece last week on Baltimore City Schools school lunch revolution as well. You might recognize the reporter, Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Like Tony Geraci often says, we can’t lose sight of the fact that the campaign to improve the foods served in public schools isn’t about politics or corporate profits, it’s about the health and well-being of children.

Originally published on the Livable Future blog

Sometimes change happens in the most unexpected places. When I learned that Baltimore City Public Schools was on a mission to change the way its more than 80,000 students thought about food, I have to admit, I was surprised. The cash strapped school system has long faced difficult challenges and the last place I expected to see noticeable reform was with its food services department. To top that off, you could have bowled me over when I heard that the City Schools’ new chef/dietitian, Melissa Mahoney, convinced her boss, Tony Geraci, to let her develop her own Meatless Monday lunch menus. To be honest, I doubt that Mahoney needed to do a lot of convincing. When it comes to dreaming up innovative and cost effective ways to feed kids healthy, tasty, whole foods, Geraci isn’t shy about pushing the envelope. It’s Geraci’s bold and sometimes brash entrepreneur spirit that has captured the attention of food policy experts across the country, including the White House.

Last week Geraci, hired a little over a year ago to reform Baltimore City Public Schools’ food services program, was invited to testify before a congressional sub-committee that is looking for innovative practices to improve child nutrition.  Geraci touted what the Baltimore school system has already achieved:

We now provide fresh fruit with every lunch we serve. All over Baltimore, students are learning what an actual, locally grown peach tastes like instead of some synthesized peach flavoring. And as of this school year all of the peaches, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers—all of our fruits and vegetables—come from Maryland farms.

While many credit Geraci’s tenacious leadership abilities for what has been accomplished in Baltimore, Geraci will be the first to tell you that much of the groundwork was laid by a strong group of volunteers and innovative community organizers dedicated to changing the way people and children think about food in the Baltimore region. In 2006, a study by the Baltimore Efficiency and Economy Foundation highlighted reasons why school lunch reform in City Schools was sorely needed, and even listed Geraci as a potential consultant. Geraci says, however, that if it were not for a small group of students, whom he calls “school lunch revolutionists,” he would not be in Baltimore today. One of those young revolutionists, Alice Sheehan, was invited to share her story at the same congressional hearing with Geraci. Sheehan is currently an 8^th grader in the Baltimore City Public Schools system, and she wasn’t shy about telling members of the House Committee on Education and Labor what spurred her and her fellow school lunch revolutionists to stand up and demand that school leaders “get rid of the overcooked, tasteless and just plain disgusting food.” She went on:

[More than 3 years ago] our story started with the endless grumbling about lunches at school. Tired of the complaints and ready for action, our student council and others together took samples of our prepackaged lunch down to the Baltimore City School Board to demonstrate what it would be like to eat this every day. If that is what they feed us, we said, they should have to eat it too. The Board turned up its nose: no thanks! But the deed was done: we had started acting and not just complaining.

With the help of their Social Studies teacher, Peter French, Sheehan and a handful of her fellow classmates, who were studying the U.S. Constitution at the time, came up with a Cafeteria Bill of Rights.

The Cafeteria Bill of Rights include:

• The right to nutritious and delicious food for breakfast and lunch
• The right to fresh fruit and fresh vegetables each day
• The right to choose-more than one main selection each day
• The right to give feedback and have input on the quality and selections made and have our input be given serious consideration

Following an impressive grassroots campaign and a Baltimore Sun article critical of the food quality and taste disparities between City Schools and nearby better funded schools, the young school lunch reformers scheduled a meeting to talk with the newly hired Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Dr. Andrés Alonso. Sheehan described the meeting:

… we gave him our Cafeteria Bill of Rights, and told him of our expectations for a better and healthier school lunch system. He was sympathetic with our cause, and admitted how much he disliked the pre-packaged food at his own cafeteria. He said he would do something about it. And he did. The NEW director of food and nutrition, Mr. Geraci, has been working hard to improve our lunches ever since.

Last month White House Assistant Chef and Food Initiative Coordinator Sam Kass along with officials from the U.S. Departments of Education and Agriculture met up with Geraci (in photo, right), an accomplished chef himself, at the City Schools’ new Great Kids Farm. The 33-acre organic teaching farm — complete with a variety of vegetables and fruits, not to mention goats, chickens and bees — is Geraci’s pride and joy. Geraci says the farm serves as a powerful tool to teach children about food by reconnecting them to how it’s grown and raised and teaching them that food doesn’t come from the grocery store. He proudly told his guests that the farm is virtually self-sufficient thanks to the hard work of its farm manager Greg Strella, dozens of volunteers, donations from non-profits, revenue from its community supported agriculture shares and sales to local restaurants.

It may take longer than he hopes, but Geraci is trying to wean the school system from the pre-packaged meals that many of the schools serve and replace them before the end of this school year with cooked meals prepared right on school property. For the majority of the system’s schools, which no longer have kitchens, Geraci is already working on plans to convert an old warehouse into a central kitchen, from which fresh cooked meals can quickly be delivered. Currently the school system is serving kids regional fruits, veggies and dairy after brokering deals with local suppliers and acquiring a fleet of refrigerated trucks and milk coolers.

Mathew Yale, Deputy Chief of Staff for the Secretary of Education, told Geraci he’s most interested in learning about how the school system made so many changes without a significant increase in federal or state funding. Geraci says it takes a lot of hard work, ingenuity, and luck. Much of the equipment he’s received came through grants or donations. The trucks and milk coolers were a $1.3 million gift from the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association. But Geraci says if the feds gave the school system more freedom to spend federal dollars to purchase produce, his office would be able to buy a great deal more local fruits and veggies. His favorite example of typical waste inherent in the system is comparing the cost of locally grown apples to apples trucked from states as far away as Washington, almost 3,000 miles from Baltimore.  A case of Maryland apples costs the Baltimore City Public Schools about $6, while a case of government-approved apples costs them about $56.  Geraci says, “it’s outrageous! Why would we spend almost ten times as much money for food that we can grow in our own backyard?” He says, “it not only saves the City Schools money, it puts cash back into the local economy.”

Incorporating Meatless Monday into this year’s lunch menu plans, Geraci says, was another innovative cost cutting measure. The move not only saves the district money but it serves as an educational tool as well. Meatless Monday gives the school system an opportunity to expose students to different cultures, Geraci says, through various meat-free recipes and meals from around the world. U.S. meat industry lobbyists quickly grumbled about Baltimore’s lack of meat options on Mondays, inferring that the meals may lack proper nutrition and claiming menu decisions should be left to the experts not administrators. If the lobbyists had bothered to talk to the person who came up with the idea, Melissa Mahoney, they would have learned that she is a dietitian and that she ensured each meal surpassed all USDA required nutrition standards. Jokingly, Geraci testified in front of House Education and Labor committee members that he had “an unholy love of pork,” but he insisted that, “[Meatless Monday] is not about denying people meat. This is about beginning a conversation about alternatives… beginning a conversation about change.”

The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future recognized the Baltimore City Public Schools last month with the 2009 CLF Award for “Visionary Leadership in Local Food Procurement and Food Education” in hopes of encouraging school districts across the nation to initiate their own school lunch reforms. Timing is also important, as lawmakers consider the reauthorization of the federal Child Nutrition Programs. While Geraci didn’t have time to complete his prepared testimony on the Hill last week, his written testimony finished with a request for Congress to implement the six recommendations of the National Farm to School Network:

1. Guarantee funding for competitive, one-time grants that will help schools develop their own farm to cafeteria projects—menus, procurement, and educational and promotional materials that get local produce into schools.

2. Increase the reimbursement rate for all child nutrition programs in line with actual costs.

3. Apply the same high nutritional standards to all foods and beverages sold within schools, even those not covered by the United States Department of Agriculture’s school meals program.

4. Encourage purchasing of local fruits and vegetables through the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program.

5. Incorporate language changes in existing Child Nutrition Reauthorization feeding programs to promote increased local food purchasing.

6. Provide mandatory and consistent funding for the Team Nutrition Network to enable a consistent and coordinated nutrition education approach across child nutrition programs.