Going Vegan and How I’m Destined to Fail
A how-to guide from compulsive meat-eater
I eat meat. I know I shouldn’t, seeing as one pound of beef takes upwards of 2,000 gallons of water to produce. But it’s hardwired into me as an Argentine. Fun fact, according to Drovers, Argentina is the 6th largest producer of livestock in the world. But my science teacher challenged our class to the Do One Thing (DOT) Challenge, a challenge meant to help better the environment by, quite literally, doing one thing.
I reflected on my carbon footprint, and after using an ecological footprint calculator, I decided that swearing off meat and becoming vegan, if only for a month, was the most logical option to reduce my footprint. I considered going vegetarian, however after doing some research, it turns out that being vegetarian takes up three times more space to sustain your diet than just being vegan.
Plus, according to healthline, there are many vegan health benefits, including but not limited to: consuming more nutrients, losing weight, and lowering the risk of cancer and heart disease.
I have muted optimism of completing the project successfully because my mom is already vegetarian so I don’t eat meat half the time anyway. How hard could it be right? It turns out, it’s very hard. I’ve now gone a full week of being vegan and I wish I just went vegetarian instead. I’ve come close to breaking but I haven’t yet.
So I ask you, humble reader, to just Do One Thing to make the world a better and more healthy place. Not necessarily going vegan or even vegetarian, just thinking about your footprint in all aspects of your life. Maybe try to ride a bike a couple times a week, or eat a salad and not a burger for dinner, because all the little things add up in the worldview.
