Can you cut 1 Tonne of carbon pollution out of your life?
Take the challengeAuthor of a new United Nations report , Mark Sutton has coined a term that everyone should be adding into their eco-vocab.
Demitarian-
heard of it?
You could even be one and not realise!
The term demi is from the Latin dimedius meaning half and the full term literally means cutting your consumption of animal products in half.
The UN report reveals how becoming a demitarian will help to reduce your carbon footprint and may even be beneficial for your health, cutting saturated fats by 40 percent.
This is not a new concept, it's been in the 1 Million Women low-carbon life, but now there's a name for it, so it will become a lot easier to spread the word.
What you can do
For regular meat eaters cutting out 1 red meat meal each week
Manage your weekly diet to include lots of cereals, nuts, fruits and vegetables and non red meats, as by cutting out one 150g red meat meal a week you can save approximatrly 195kg of CO2 in a year.
40,391
Tonnes of CO2
savings pledged
savings pledged
What you can do
Trim dairy by equal to two glasses of milk a week if you consume a lot
Cattle pollute with their burping (seriously), so reducing your dairy products consumption can help cut CO2. But make sure you always watch your nutritional requirements too.
267
Tonnes of CO2
savings pledged
savings pledged
The report shows that if Europeans became demitarians, (reducing meat, dairy and eggs by half) they could lower agricultural greenhouse gas emissions by 25 to 40 percent. There would also be a 40 percent drop in nitrogen pollution, which can lead to poor air quality and decrease oxygen levels in water.
Diane Mitchell, chief environment adviser at the National Farmers Union, told The Guardian , "Eating less meat is a simplistic solution to what is a highly complex situation."
Although this report focuses on European diets, it does explain that the demitarian diet will benefit anyone who eats a "western world diet". Those who live in the United States have diets which generally contain more beef and chicken than those in Europe, while China consumes a significant amount more pork. Cutting this back by half would make an enormous difference.
Here are some recipes to help get you started on your demitarian journey:
- triple chocolate chickpea vegan cookies
- Less is more: Mushroom Risotto and Coconut & Pea Soup using only 4 ingredients
- Dairy Free Recipe: Cake Batter Ice Cream using frozen overripe bananas
- No Waste Recipe: Brazilian style rice, beans and dairy-free rice cakes
We're building a movement of women fighting climate change through the way we live.
Join us and be counted.
