Give Up One Meat Meal and Help the Fight Against Climate Change

Yes, that’s right.

By giving up meat for one meal, you can make a big difference against climate change.

After a successful ‘World Meat Free Day’ in the United Kingdom, the movement came to the Philippines last June 13 and it aimed to make people aware of the connection between chicken breasts, bacon, and steak to this phenomenon called climate change.

Bianca King hosted the event. She pushes for this advocacy as well in her organic restaurant, Runners Kitchen.

Many people don’t know that livestock production is the biggest contributor of non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions.

Meat production emits more greenhouse gases than all forms of global transportation or industrial processes.

While farms don’t have black smoke most people see from factories, the emissions come in the form of methane and nitrous oxide that are from cattle belching, fertilizer use, manure management, and, sometimes, disposal of crop residues.

In 2015’s Paris Agreement on Climate Change, about 195 countries including the Philippines pledged to address global warming. One of the goals set was to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C. Remarkably, recent studies have shown that it is unlikely to achieve this without a shift in global meat consumption.

Jamie Plotnek of The Carbon Trust, one of the major partners of WMFD in the UK

Gina Lopez of Bantay Kalikasan and owner of G Stuff

Chit Juan of Slow Food Philippines and owner of ECHO Store

Custer Deocaris of Luntiang Lunes

Anyone who wants to pitch in and save the planet can do so very simply, by foregoing meat for just one meal, every now and then. And you can start this habit by participating in the World Meat Free Day! To inspire you to make this change, check how your foregone meals actually translate to less greenhouse gas emissions by using the sustainability calculator in the World Meat Free Day website: www.worldmeatfreeday.com/sustainability-calculator.

So, the next time you would have to choose between a 100-peso chicken fajita and a humble sautéed pechay with oyster sauce, dare and care to do the math.