the peanut-butter & jelly pledge...

this campaign is really cute. it promotes the adoption of vegetarian habits as a means of reducing environmental impact, using the ever-popular pb&j as a "spokes-sandwich."

"you recycle. you choose organic. you conserve energy. now take at-home environmentalism to the next level... each time you have a pb&j, you shrink your carbon footprint, you reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution, you cut back on habitat destruction, and you conserve water."

there's a space on the site where you can pledge to commit to meat-free meals--as many per week as you like. i happened to have a peanut butter and (apricot) jelly sandwich earlier this week and it was delicious. i haven't taken the pledge but am considering doing it in december--cutting back to meat 3 dinners per week, along with vegetarian/vegan breakfasts and lunches. i don't know i'd be able to give up the milk in my cereal though, as i'm not a big fan of soy. oh, and i do so love cheese of all kinds.

i find it amazing that refraining from the consumption of animal products has such an overwhelming environmental impact. it's an efficiency issue--large animals need large amounts of grain & water to sustain themselves. 40 calories of grain are needed to produce 1 calorie of beef. producing 1 calorie of meat takes 100 times the amount of water as producing a calorie of grain. math is not my strong point (and the preceeding sentences are a little confusing), but even i can see that that's a bad equation.

albert einstein said that "nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet." too bad it's so difficult for people like me to give up on meat. we don't eat massive amounts or anything, but it does certainly have its place on our menu. i think i have a veggie cookbook burried somewhere in the garage. maybe i'll try to dig it up... in the meantime, these pb&j kids are kinda cute.