My Project is Over
“People eat meat and think they will become strong as an ox, forgetting that the ox eats grass”
After four long weeks, my Do One Thing (DOT) project has come to an end. Four weeks of not eating meat is something I’m proud to say I successfully completed. As a result of going pollo-vegetarian, I saved 312 oz (19.5 lbs) of meat. If I continued doing this throughout the year, I could save 4,056 oz (253.5 lbs) of meat. During my project, I kept track of everything I ate. To see that data, click here. By saving 312 oz of meat, I also saved more than 35,080 gallons of water.
According to PETA, “We feed so much grain to animals in order to fatten them up for consumption that if we all became vegetarians, we could produce enough food to feed the entire world.” This means that a simple change in your diet can not only significantly improve your health, but is also a possible solution to world hunger.
In addition to saving food, water and animals, going vegetarian also reduces the number of cows farmers breed. Doing this is a big step in reducing the amount of methane released into the atmosphere. Methane, or CH4 is a very powerful greenhouse gas. According to, the Environmental Defense Fund, “Methane is the primary component of natural gas — a common fuel source.” If one cow produces about 70–120 kg of methane per year, then eating less meat could help a lot with climate change.
To conclude, by going vegetarian for a month, I saved 312 oz (19.5 lbs) of meat, 35,080.5 gallons of water, and a lot of methane. Going forwards, I won’t be vegetarian, but I will be a lot more conscious of my decisions regarding eating meat. I’m not asking for much, but if everyone in the US ate just one pound less of beef every year (about three hamburgers) then we would produce 327.2 million pounds less of beef, require 588,632,800,000 fewer gallons of water, have a lot more food, and a lot less methane. And, if we all went vegetarian, we could adequately provide food and water for the whole world.
