Are you a Democrat who is passionate about climate change? Are you a liberal — a progressive — a blue-bleeding warrior for hope and change? Did you attend that big-ass climate march a few years back, with hope in your heart and a hand-made sign?
I am. And I did.
I’ve also recently gone “practically vegan” — for my waistline, my wallet, and most importantly, the world.
Full disclosure: this is the 2nd time around for me. I was 100% vegan from 2001 to 2008, then slid back to omnivore status. In the past 10 years I didn’t each *much* meat, but I did eat it. I freely admit that humans are top o’ the foodchain omnivores. Pork tastes great. A juicy burger sometimes calls my name.
But I can’t in good conscience eat meat any longer and say with a straight face that climate change is my number one issue for 2020 (and beyond).
Did you know that beef eaters use 160 percent more land resources than people who eat a plant-based diet?
Did you know that if you personally ate one less burger a week (assuming, of course, that you eat burgers) it would be the equivalent of taking your car off the road for 320 miles?
Did you know that
a 2017 study published in the journal Climatic Change found that if everyone in the United States substituted beans for beef, the country could reach up to 74% of the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions needed to meet the 2020 goals set by President Obama in 2009?
To quote from that study:
Our results demonstrate that substituting one food for another, beans for beef, could achieve approximately 46 to 74% of the reductions needed to meet the 2020 GHG target for the US. In turn, this shift would free up 42% of US cropland (692,918 km2). While not currently recognized as a climate policy option, the “beans for beef” scenario offers significant climate change mitigation and other environmental benefits, illustrating the high potential of animal to plant food shifts.
THIS. IS. HUGE.
SO WHY ARE AMERICANS – and progressive climate change activist Americans, at that – STILL EATING SO MUCH BEEF?
We were apparently on track to eat a record amount of beef last year.
According to data published by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), consumers are expected to eat 222.2 pounds (100.8 kilo) of red meat and poultry this year, up from 216.9 pounds per person in 2017. That will surpass the previous record of 221.9 pounds per person, set in 2004, Bloomberg reports.despite the fact that eliminating beef from one’s diet is actually pretty easy.
What’s the hold-up? Why are we eating so many cows?
Maybe we just don’t know that many easy, tasty recipes for beans?
In this, the first edition of “Save the Climate: Have a Nosh,” I present my easy, tasty, healthy, packed-with-protein white bean and red bell pepper spread recipe.
It could not be simpler to make. Yummy as a dip for raw or cooked veg, it tastes darned fine on bread, and can be made practically fat free by simply eliminating the olive oil. I made a batch this morning – without the olive oil – and am currently munching on a slice of homemade whole wheat toast slathered with the stuff. It’s lovely.
White Bean and Red Pepper Dip
Ingredients
1 large red bell pepper
1 can white beans, navy beans, or butter beans (drained but not rinsed)
1 – 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt (or more to taste – but wait and add at the end)
1 to 2 tbsp olive oil plus additional oil for rubbing on peppers (optional)
A couple of tsp water to thin (if needed)
Method
Cut the bell pepper in half. Remove the seeds and stem.
Rub the peppers all over with a little olive oil and place the halves cut sides down on a rimmed baking sheet. (Note – if using oil on your peppers, stay close by as they are broiling, since the oil may flare up.)
Pop the peppers under the broiler in your oven, with the rack in the top position so the skins are close to the heating element.
Roast/broil until the skins start to blister and turn black. This can take up to 10 minutes or more, depending on how close you get them to the heating element, how fast your oven warms up, etc.
When a third to a half of each pepper skin is browned and bubbly, remove from oven. Peppers should still be firm enough to hold their shape, but will have softened up enough so you can pierce them easily with the tip of a sharp knife.
When peppers are cool enough to handle, peel off about half of the skin. You want to get most of the blackened stuff off, but not all. There’s flavor in those blistered bits!
Roughly chop the peppers into irregular dice. They don’t need to be pretty.
In your food processor or blender, combine the drained beans, the peppers, the lemon juice, the one or two tbsps. olive oil (if using), and the salt. Process until smooth. If needed to loosen the mixture, add a little water.
And that’s it! Scrape the dip into a bowl and enjoy with chips or toast or crudités, or use as a bread spread to replace mayo.
I am not an Official Nutrition Person, but here’s some basic information to give you an idea of how healthy this stuff is:
One cup of navy beans contains 253 calories, 15 grams of protein, and 19 grams of fiber. There’s 1.1 gram of fat in that cup of beans, with 0.2 grams of it being saturated.
Navy beans are also an excellent source of folate, copper, manganese, and phosphorus. A cup of navy beans is packed with iron and magnesium, as well!
One tablespoon of olive oil contains 119 calories and 4 grams of fat, of which 1.9g is saturated, 1.4g is polyunsaturated, and 9.8g is monounsaturated.
Among much else, bell peppers contain carotenoids, fiber, folate, and vitamins C, B1, B2, B3, B6, E, and K.
If you’re worried about getting enough protein from plant sources, please note that a three ounce serving of 85%/15% ground beef contains 181 calories, 15.62 grams of protein, and no fiber at all. The fat content is a total of 12.6g (4.927 saturated, 0.364 polyunsaturated, and 5.506 monounsaturated).
So that’s it for today’s entry. A little food for thought, so to speak. Maybe replacing a little beef with some beans is something you already do. Maybe it’s something you’d like to try. It’s just such an easy thing to do — a thing that could make an immediate impact on emissions — that I hope more and more of us will try it!
No, I am not fully vegan this time around. I am getting older, and need fewer calories and more protein to keep healthy. So I have an egg every now and again. I eat a piece of sustainable fish a couple of times a week. When I started eating this way a few years ago, I called it “90% vegan.” That got me laughed at and ratioed on Twitter, so now I call this way of eating “practically vegan.” Because it’s practical! It’s not full-steam-ahead vegan. But it eliminates 90% of animal foods from my diet, while allowing me to easily get enough (sustainable) protein, and I feel good about that.
I am not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I am going to try and reduce my carbon footprint as much as I can. Many of us making the same changes, added all together, could make quite an impact as we wait for President Harris (or Buttigieg or Warren or Booker or Sanders or Biden) to implement the Green New Deal.
After all — Hair On Fire, People. :-)