Go Greener, Australia

Starting next Monday, 29th September, it’s National Vegetarian Week. This is an event put on by the Australian Vegetarian Society to promote the benefits of plant-based diets and encourage Australians to lower their meat intake. NewsPoll shows that 7 out of 10 Australians already eat vegetarian meals sometimes, so this is a good chance to try a few new recipes and find out how eating less meat can help the environment.

Eating less meat is my 7th way you can eat better for the environment. Livestock farming uses lots of water, about 156GL a year, which isn’t good in our current drought. And cows and sheep produce about 12% of our greenhouse gas emissions, mostly in methane. So anything we can do to cut back on these things is a good idea. Other good reasons to eat less meat are the health benefits, and the fact that animal farming can be pretty cruel. You can read more about this at the AVS website if you’re interested.

And, last but not least, going vego for a week will give you a chance to branch out in the kitchen. If you’re like most Aussies, you’re not getting your 2 fruit and 5 veg every day. Why not take the opportunity to try new recipes, or new ingredients that you wouldn’t normally bother with? National Vegetarian Week includes cooking demonstrations in Vic, NSW, Qld, Tas and WA: you can see the list of events here (pdf).

I’ll be going for vegetarian nachos (using organic blue-corn chips I got from a Mexican friend), and baked potatoes using the ones we’ve just harvested from our vegie patch this week. I’m thinking of trying to cook tofu for the first time too - I’ve eaten it plenty of times before, I’ve just not done it myself. Dave will probably surprise me with something yummy, but he never plans ahead when it’s his turn to cook. I’ll post pictures or recipes if we make anything too delicious to keep to ourselves.

If you’ve got any good vego recipes, please let the rest of us know in the comments!

Breakfast: my usual cold Milo
Lunch: Chilled Tomato Soup, recipe from Fresh Food Fast by Peter Berley
Dinner: baked beans on toast! Not very exciting, but I felt like I’d made enough of a fuss with lunch, and Dave was too tired to cook (he’d been playing cricket all afternoon).

The soup was like a summer version of a minestrone, or a complicated vegie drink It was pretty tasty though, especially with all the trimmings like spring onions marinated in red wine vinegar. Lots of chopping, followed by more chopping, but less than a minute to whizz up in the blender after that.

This morning we did our grocery shopping for the week. Last night we made a rough meal plan for the week, which isn’t our usual style. But we wanted to make sure we didn’t get stuck one night with nothing to eat after the shops had shut. Our grocery bill was about $20 more than usual, but this is cancelled out by the money we saved by not buying any meat. Fresh vegies, fruit and meat have all gone up in price lately, due to the drought and increasing petrol costs. I feel like we came out even compared to our usual weekly shop.

Yesterday I posted about how eating less meat is good for the environment. Today I’m going to show you some tactics you can use to gradually cut back on the frequency or quantity of meat you eat. I’ve put them roughly in order from easy to more difficult, so you can start with the slack options

Tasty treats

The next time you decide to go out for dinner, try a vegetarian restaurant, or one that caters to vegetarians. It’s a good opportunity to taste foods you wouldn’t usually eat, like tofu or lentils. And you’ll be able to see what kinds of things can be done when you don’t have to include meat in every dish. I love the nachos and breakfasts at Source Foods on Beaufort St in Perth, but would like to try more places. If you’ve got a good vego restaurant near you, let us know in the comments

Get educated

I was pretty grossed out by the details of how animals are farmed - it really makes you think about what you’re eating and can help motivate you to stick to your changes. Check out the information on factory farming at PETA’s GoVeg site (videos as well), or the SaveBabe website, and for a lighter take on such a serious subject, watch Moofeus free the pigs in The Meatrix (remember that although cows in Australia are usually kept in pasture, chickens and pigs are factory farmed here, and the slaughtering process is pretty bad for all of them).

Buy less meat

When you’re working out how much meat to buy, keep in mind that people only need one serve a day,which is 65-100g. That’s about the size of a deck of cards. If you don’t buy large portions of meat to start with, you’ll find it easier to cut back, especially if you’re the sort of person who has to eat everything on your plate. And since the price of meat keeps going up, this can save you a bit of money.

Buy only sustainable meat

When you’re at the shops, restrict what sorts of meat you buy. You could stop buying red meat; or restrict yourself to free-range or organic meats instead. That way, when you get home you’ve got little choice but to reduce the amount of meat you’re eating. Unfortunately, if your butcher or supermarket stock lots of sustainable meat, this won’t do much to help you - you’ll still be able to eat quite a lot of meat, and will have to try harder…

Learn to cook meat-free meals

This is where you might have to learn some new skills, although you probably already have a few favourite meals that don’t have meat in them: bruschetta and Dave’s leek and mushroom pasta are my faves. You can try replacing meat with things like tofu or seitan as well.

Taste.com.au allows you to search for vegetarian recipes. If you need a bit of inspiration, try some of the fantastic vego and vegan blogs out there: the photos at VeganYumYum make me hungry in an instant! I’ve also bought a vegetarian cookbook, Fresh Food Fast by Peter Berley, and try out new recipes from it often. If you’ve got any good recommendations for books or websites with recipe ideas, please let me know, especially if they’re Australian (converting ounces to grams does my head in!)

Set yourself a challenge

Decide on a challenge, and try it out for a while. Some examples might be: making Tuesdays meat-free; meat-free lunches; giving up beef; or trying one new vego recipe a week. Do it for a month and see how you go - it could become a permanent change.

Dave and I have been doing all of these except for the last one, but we’re tackling that next. Tomorrow I’ll tell you about the challenge we’ve set for next week…