TODAY'S TURN: Drop the chops in half

Meat, for lack of a better word, is good. Meat is right. Meat works. Can you tell I like meat?

I'll never be a vegetarian, but they may be onto something. Eating LESS meat may be good too. Good for the land. Good for the gut. Good for poor people around the world.

Here are some recipes that do more flavor-packing than meat-packing. They all include meat. They just include less.

Take my beloved beef for instance. I look at a steak like a shark eyeing Robert Shaw, but it comes with a price. The average feedlot steer in the U.S. downs 2,700 pounds of grain. Not only could that grain be used to feed hungry people, but just growing the stuff takes up a lot of land. And more land for grazing pastures. Enter deforestation. Enter soil depletion and water waste. And exit the rural families who are left without land, without jobs and forced to drain into urban slums. Doesn't happen this way with all meat producers, but it does happen.

So if you don't want to chuck out the chuck, it couldn't hurt to carve some of it out of the menu.


CLICK HERE TO DO THIS GOOD TURN:
Less Meat, More Flavor Recipes
- Stir-fried Greens with Pork Shiitakes, and Black Bean Sauce
- Shrimp Pad Thai
- Korean-style Tofu, Vegetable, and Beef Stew
- Coconut Ginger Curry with Vegetables and Halibut