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Welcome to FlexYourFood and thanks for taking a minute to learn more about the reasoning behind this movement. We provide flexitarian recipes and informative posts to help encourage people to eat less meat. It’s better for our health, our wallets, and our planet. Here are some facts:

Climate Change:

• If we each decreased our meat intake from our current average of 90 kilograms a year to the healthy, recommended amount of 53 kilograms a year, meat related global warming emissions would drop by 44%. (EL)
• The livestock industry accounts for 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions–that’s more than is produced by every form of transportation combined. (FAA)
• One pound of beef has the same carbon dioxide emissions as driving an SUV 40 miles. (PETA)

Natural Resources:

• Over 70% of all crops grown in the United States are used to feed animals that are raised for slaughter and if all that grain were set aside for one year, it would feed 1.3 billion people. (OGP)
• One pound of beef requires 16 pounds of grain and over 2,400 gallons of water to produce, compared to the 25 gallons of water it takes to produce one pound of wheat. (PETA)
• Making one calorie from animal protein requires more than 11 times as much fossil fuel as making one calorie from plant protein. (PETA)

Health:

• Eating one quarter pound hamburger a day increases your mortality risk by 34%. (TH)
• 14% of deaths could have been prevented if the person decreased their red meat consumption. (SBM)
• US and UK citizens currently eat more than twice as much meat as is considered healthy. (TT)

Weight Loss:

• Meat-eaters have three times the obesity rate of vegetarians. (PETA)
• A low fat, meat free diet leads to a weight loss of about one pound per week, without additional exercise or limits on portion sizes, calories, or carbohydrates. (FR)

Land and Water:

• Raising animals for food uses 30% of the earth’s land mass and is expanding by bulldozing forests at the rate of seven football fields a minute. (FNN)
• The Environmental Protection Agency reports that chicken, pig, and cow excrement has polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states; that’s more pollution than all other industrial sources combined. (PETA)

We have got to eat less meat. Excuses are no longer acceptable so let’s take matters into our own hands!

(EL) Environmental Leader

(FAA) Food and Agriculture Association of the United Nations

(PETA) PETA

(OGP) One Green Planet

(TH) Tree Hugger

(SBM) Science-Based Medicine

(TT) The Telegraph

(FR) Family Resource

(MNN) Mother Nature Network