Where's the Beef?

We have been doing pretty well so far at reducing our meat intake, so we thought we'd share our first experience!

This past week we put our first goal into practice using some organic ground beef. 1 lb of meat cost us around $5-6. We made 40 meatballs from this adding bread crumbs, rice, onion, and green/red pepper, we froze them and that provided us enough meat for 10 meals (2 meatballs each). This costs less than $1 per meal to add meatballs, and we each eat only about 0.8oz of meat per meal.

Examples of meals we have tried so far:
- Meatballs with sautéed green/red peppers and broccoli, served in a light gravy over rice
- Spaghetti and meatballs in tomato sauce (a favorite)
- Meatballs in fried rice, with peas, broccoli, and carrots
- Meatballs sautéed with cabbage, onion, and green pepper, served in tomato sauce over rice (my quick version of Polish Golabki)

Yummm!

Goal #1: Eat Less Meat

Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. Romans 14:20-21

In this verse, the apostle Paul is talking about eating food that doesn't comply with others' religious standards, such as eating non-kosher food. This passage of scripture urges us to not eat in such a way that would cause someone else to stumble in their faith. But we had to ask ourselves - are there other ways in which our eating causes others to stumble? And perhaps this is not limited to a spiritual stumbling, as we often interpret it, but a physical stumbling as well. Can what we eat really cause physical harm to another human being?

The UN World Food Council estimated that using only 10-15% of the amount of grain fed to livestock, we could raise food levels enough to feed the world's hungry. Just take a moment to let that one sink in. Now consider that eating meat is one of the most inefficient ways to gain nutrients from the earth. It takes 10 lbs of grain to get just 1 lb of beef. For pork, the ratio is about 5:1, for poultry 2:1. The inefficiencies aren't just in the grain use, either. They are in water and land use too. Meats have the lowest yield of protein per acre, a whopping 45 lbs/acre compared to 356 lbs/acre for soybeans, 261 lbs/acre for rice, and 211 lbs/acre for corn. In terms of water use, beef is the worst, taking 1200 gallons of water to produce 1 lb. Comparatively, it takes 170 gallons for 1 lb of corn.*

Perhaps reducing the amount of meat we currently eat in America (200lbs/person annually in 2008!!! )** won't automatically feed the world, but most organizations and advocates believe that this is a crucial step in creating a sustainable way for us humans to produce the food we need to survive, without depleting natural resources in the process. It appears to us that we could certainly be harming our hungry neighbors by continuing to eat this way. So our first goal is to eat less meat, make more vegetarian meals, and buy organic and grass-fed meats whenever possible.

*Compassion in World Farming Trust. The Global Benefits of Eating Less Meat. 2004.
**United States Department of Agriculture. 2008 Agricultural Statistics Annual. 2008.

In Due Season

The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. Psalm 145:15

Not many people stop to think about the origin of their food. But scripture teaches us over and over again that our daily provisions are provided by God alone. God created a world that by nature provides food - the rain falls, plants grow and bear fruit, animals feed, fertilize, and we labor.

Lately, we have begun to ponder this creative design, and how much our modern culture has deviated from it. And after much prayer and searching, God has led us to take action in our family's eating choices. So here begins our journey to follow God through eating more sustainably day by day - choosing locally grown and organic foods whenever possible.

So why do we think this is so important? We thought that we'd begin with some of the basic ideas that led us down this path.

• We care about people. Modern agriculture and farming in the U.S. and other modern countries creates a system that negatively impacts world hunger and food shortages
• We care about the earth. The way we grow and raise our food today harms the environment, depletes natural resources, and does not work within God's created system of sustainability
• We care about how we live. Many of our food sources are produced using methods of questionable integrity - forcing human design on plant and animal life without concern for God's design

Check back often to read about our experiences through this journey of faith and obedience.