Meat Minimalism

Posted under environment, what we eat by rahma

Last week, I read an article in the NYT on the effects our abundant meat consuption has on the environment.  As a bonified tree hugger who has lusted after hybrid cars, I was especially impacted by this assertion:

To put the energy-using demand of meat production into easy-to-understand terms, Gidon Eshel, a geophysicist at the Bard Center, and Pamela A. Martin, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan a Camry, say, to the ultra-efficient Prius. Similarly, a study last year by the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Japan estimated that 2.2 pounds of beef is responsible for the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average European car every 155 miles, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days.

Dude!  I totally cannot afford a hybrid vehicle, but I can reduce my meat consuption.  My freezer is stuffed full of meat.  I buy it when it’s onsale, break it into meal sized portions and freeze for later consumption.  Since it’s always on hand, it’s an easy option for week night dinners.  Simply toss in the microwave, slap on some breadcrumbs and spices, throw in the oven and an hour later, wa’la, it’s a meal.   Um yeah, so we’ve been eating a ton of meat, like meat every single night.

Apprehensively, I proposed a meat minimalist diet to the meat loving husband - let’s limit ourselves to 2 meat based meals a week.  Suprisingly, he agreed!  Whoh, that meant that I needed to come up with something to serve every night other than noodles.  Don’t get me wrong, I love noodles, especially in their macaroni and cheese form, but after a few days of noodles in a row, it gets a little old.  Ok, well, not for me.  I could eat mac n cheese every day for the rest of my life.  It gets old for the husband.

Luckily, a friend of mine transitioned to a vegan diet a few years back, and has quite a library of vegetarian and vegan cookbooks.  I had borrowed her copy of Madhur Jaffrey’s World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking when I was briefly inspired to make indian food, which I had done a few times and then gotten bored.  I pulled out the book and eagerly began to skim, soaking in the wide variety of non meat based meals that were out there.   Later, I paid my friend a visit, returned her long lost book (after ordering my own copy on Amazon), and borrowed Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian.  I also flipped through her most recent aquisition, Veganomics, which I promptly added to my “must get” list. 

Thus far, I’ve made a Chickpea, Tomato and Carrot stew, Lentils with Spinach and Stewed Tomatoes and Chickpeas.  The lentils received a very favorable review from the husband (ie, he actually told me it was good without me having to ask), and the other two were dubbed “good” after I asked.  Success!

Now, I bet you’re thinking, um, yeah, this is all interesting (or increadibly boring), but what is this doing on an islamo-centric blog?  Ah, yes.  When I proposed the meat minimalism to the husband, he said, “yeah, you know, that’s probably a good thing to do.  After all, the Prophet (saws) didn’t eat a lot of meat.”

So of course now I’m intrigued.  It’s obvious the Prophet (saws) wasn’t a vegetarian, nor was he opposed to slaughtering animals.  However, he did stress kindness to animals, and I’m pretty sure most modern factory farms, even those that produce “halal” meat, are not humane to the Prophetic standards.  In some Zaytuna classes I’ve listened to, Imam Zaid has frequently mentioned the importance of eating not just zabiha, but meat from animals that were raised in an organic, free range environment, as well as being aware of the footprint we leave on the environment with our consumption.

I haven’t found much in the way of what the Prophet’s diet actually composed of, but it’s on my list of things to investigate further.