The Eight-Day Vegetarian

Source: Cafe Press

         Today, Ash Wednesday, is the official start of Lent for Roman Catholics around the world, as well as members of a few other Christian denominations. For many Roman Catholics, Lent is a time to focus on prayer, fasting and almsgiving, often times giving up a vice or other favored object or activity for the 40-day period.
        One of the main regulations of Lent requires that all Roman Catholics ages 14 and older abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all Fridays during Lent. (Holy Saturday is also suggested as a non-meat day, but not required by current tradition.) However, according to St. Anthony Messenger magazine, this does not include fish, eggs, milk products, animal fat or "meat juices and liquid foods made from meat. Thus, such foods as chicken broth, consomme, soups cooked or flavored with meat, meat gravies or sauces, as well as seasonings or condiments made from animal fat are not forbidden. So it is permissible to use margarine and lard. Even bacon drippings which contain little bits of meat may be poured over lettuce as seasoning." Knowing all of these exceptions, I wonder, what's the point?
        Once practiced every Friday, the abstinence from meat tradition is meant to be a form of spiritual discipline to help us recognize that our faith in Jesus is more important than three meals with meat each week. I also believe it connects to the suffering Our Lord experienced when he gave his life for humanity. If he could die on the cross, I can skip meat for a few days each year.
       If religion is not a good enough reason for your to be a vegetarian for eight days each year, maybe the environment can convince you. According to Professor Susan Thistle, the professor of my Food, Politics, and Society course, reducing your meat consumption to an average of 2 ounces per day will greatly reduce your ecological footprint. Raising livestock, except when done in strictly sustainable and organic ways, results in major energy loss. In regards to the food exchange, one estimate states that 700 calories of animal feed (mostly corn, in most industrial cases) produces only 100 calories of beef, resulting in a loss of 600 calories in the conversion process. In addition, energy is spent processing, packaging and transporting the meat from the factories to stores, and waste from industrial farms raising livestock in mass quantities stockpiles and destroys natural resources, including fresh water and marine life.
       But fear not, meat lovers, for there is a good side to eating meat. Eating meat has a sustainable function in the agricultural world. Most crops can only grow on arable land, and quantities of this precious property are declining. In places where our fruits, veggies, and wheat can't be grown, farmers can raise livestock in order to feed the world and put non-arable land to good use. Therefore, having a small amount of meat in your diet is better for the planet than having no meat at all, because a diet with meat allows for more productive global land use. Michael Pollan, a famous author and food expert, even advised the Obama Family in his article Farmer in Chief to set the example and institute a weekly meat-free day at the White House, thus incorporating some meat but mostly grains, fruits, and vegetables in the White House menu.    
       The United States is currently the leading consumer of meat in the world, while some countries, like Ecuador, survive on little to no meat. I am very thankful that I live in a country with a meat-oriented food culture and that I can afford such tasty dishes. However, going vegetarian for a few days a year is well worth the effort. It's an act of self-discipline, an act of health, an act of faith, and an act of love.