Meatless March

Achoo! Where I live, we're on the cusp of spring allergy season, and if you're an annual victim of pollen's cruel effects, maybe you should consider eating less meat and dairy. Same if you value safe drinking water, or want to avoid lung problems or insect-borne diseases. Why? Because animal agriculture is a significant driver of climate change , and climate change has major repercussions for human health . Longer springs mean longer allergy seasons . Heavy rainfalls and sea level rise contribute to fresh water pollution and salination, and droughts and earlier snowmelts can reduce water supply, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency . Air pollution from more frequent and severe wildfires can impair lung function and increase a person's risk of heart attack, stroke, lung cancer, and cognitive decline .The burden of malaria and other vector-borne diseases is poised to increase with climatic changes to animal and insect habitats. Even poison ivy is more ...

 Like the pierogi casserole from my last blog post, " Sheet-Pan Sausages and Brussels Sprouts With Honey Mustard " (NYT Cooking) is easily made vegetarian by substituting fake meat for real meat. In this case, I used Beyond sausages rather than real ones, and the results?  Ludicrously delicious. I fought the urge to eat all four serving by myself in one go. If you are wondering why you wouldn't just use pork sausages, as people have been doing for perhaps 4,000 years , it's because animal agriculture is a particular contributor to the climate change that is a feature of our modern industrial society. While we are unlucky that global warming is a side-effect of our modern lifestyles, we are lucky to live in an era of science so advanced that it tells us what causes global warming and how to fight it. To ensure that our species and others last another 4,000 years, we need to apply that science. As an individual, you can apply the science by consuming less meat (and da...