Mark Bittman's less-meat-atarianism 101

[Guest guest]

Mark Bittman wants you to eat less meat. In his typically disarming

way, The Minimalist — as he's referred to in his New York Times

column, as well as online, where he writes a blog and appears in

short cooking videos — will dish it to you straight.

At a recent appearance at the Ferry Building's Book Passage, while

promoting his new book Food Matters, Bittman told a room full of

fans: " You can't be an environmentalist unless you care about how

much meat you eat. "

Bittman is well known for his books How to Cook Everything and How

to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Food Matters expands on his idea

that " if you buy your own food and cook your own food, you tend to

put much better things in your mouth than if you don't. " Thanks in

part to a realization he had after reading the UN report called

Livestock's Long Shadow, and to his decision to tackle some of his

own health issues head on, The Minimalist is now advocating an even

larger shift. In the vein of Michael Pollan's now well-known

creed, " Eat food, not too much, mostly plants, " Bittman has the

potential to reach a broad audience of home cooks who may have not

read Pollan's books or seriously consider their food choices from a

sustainability perspective.

Here's how Bittman breaks it down: industrial livestock production

accounts for 18% (1/5) of the greenhouses gases currently being

emitted and ranks above transportation as a contributing factor to

climate change.

The average American eats a half pound of meat a day, which accounts

for 1/6 of the world's livestock consumption. As the developing

world begins to eat more meat and countries such as China take on

behavior similar to ours, the projected global demand for meat will

be 120 billion animals a year (or twice what we currently consume)

by 2050.

" I know statistics are numbing, " says Bittman, " and these numbers

may seem like no big deal, until you consider that it takes 70% of

all the available farmland in the world to produce the meat we're

eating now – whether it's land the actual livestock take up, or it's

being used to grow the corn and soy that feed livestock. " And, he

points out, if demand does go up to 120 billion animals, you'd need

an impossible 140% of the world's arable land.

" The land just isn't there, " says the chef-turned-environmental-

advocate, adding that meat production can't get any more efficient

( " and the efficiency we're experiencing now comes at the expense of

animals' well-being " ). Bittman also makes a comparison to Americans'

dependence on fossil fuels. " The resources aren't there in order to

grow unless people change their behavior. So we have to — for lack

of a better word — conserve. "

Bittman himself now eats a vegan, whole grain-based diet for the

first two meals of the day and allows himself to eat " whatever he

wants " for the third. In other words, the recipes in Food Matters

are the direct product of his own at-home experiments. The book is

also full of concrete suggestions as to how to accommodate a more

plant-based diet. He recommends making a frittata, for instance with

a much a higher ratio of vegetables to eggs than average. Or a

spaghetti sauce " spiked " with a little meat for flavor, but loaded

with vegetables. He also encourages his readers to get to know a few

delicious ways to prepare beans and other legumes, so as to

incorporate them into weekly meal planning in place of some meat-

based dishes.

Most importantly, Bittman is asking his audience to think

incrementally, and to start where they're comfortable. " If we ate

nine billion animals in the US next year instead of 10 billion,

that's still a significant change, " he says. As for his own love of

meat, Bittman says: " I'll never stop eating animals, but it is time

we stopped raising them industrially and stopped eating them

thoughtlessly. "

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