CHALLENGE 1
EAT LESS FACE
Welcome to the first challenge of The Kin Project. It's really easy in today's world of convenience to get distanced from the consequences of our actions. We run on autopilot a lot of the time, rarely thinking about why we're doing what we're doing. We just know that we've always done it this way so we'll keep on doing it this way - which is kind of terrifying when you think about it... which we don't.
Eating animals is one of those things that a lot of us just *do* without really giving it much thought.
So this week, the challenge is to try to eat less of anything that once had a face. You know, like cows, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, turkey, ducks, rabbits, fish, deer, horses...
Take it down a notch from where you currently are. If you eat meat for every meal, try and NOT eat meat one meal a day. If the only meat you eat is white meat or fish, try cutting back on those. If you are a part-time vegetarian, try being a full-time one. If you are a vegetarian, try going vegan (dairy products aren't so great for the world, either).
If you're a vegan, have a stiff drink, you probably need it. KIDDING, vegans, I'm kidding, you guys are champs.
WHY THIS HABIT?
That's all you have to do. Just eat LESS meat.
Don't make this a huge mission. Start slowly with little steps that are easy to accomplish so you don't fall on your face and give up too soon.
FEED PEOPLE, NOT YOUR BURGER
People go hungry everywhere and it's not as if population growth is slowing down. An additional 4 billion people in the world could be fed if land currently used to grow crops for livestock were instead used to grow crops for humans, according to this study.
THOSE POOR BASTARDS
If you were ever looking for the very definition of hell, factory farms are a pretty good fit. Put aside 12 minutes and watch this video - perhaps you'll still want to eat meat afterwards, but you'll at least know what that entails.
THE ENVIRONMENT (YEP, STILL)
Raising all those animals creates an awful lot of greenhouse gas, which, unless you're a troglodyte, you know is no good thing. Beef is definitely the worst at this - as per this article in Time, "it produces twice the emissions of pork, four times as much as chicken, and 13 times that of vegetable protein such as beans, lentils, and tofu. That’s especially alarming since we waste so much meat — ultimately throwing away about 20% of what we produce — meaning that all that carbon was generated for nothing."
NO ONE LIKES CANCER
The New York Times called Dr. Campbell's book, The China Study, "the most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease." In it, Dr. Campbell states, "No chemical carcinogen is nearly so important in causing human cancer as animal protein."
BEING FAT CAN BE A DOWNER
If you eat meat, you are three times as likely as a vegetarian to be obese. If being fat were simply a vanity issue, it would be easy to dismiss, but the health implications of carrying around too much weight are not pleasant. Plus, if you're ruling out enjoyable activities because you're carrying extra weight, cutting meat might help you get back out there. It's just fun to move.
A WHOLE NEW WORLD
If you start scaling back the meat consumption, you're going to have to eat something else instead. This means foraging around for new recipes and new ingredients - that's a whole new world (I can't stop singing that Disney song now) of flavour to enjoy.
YOU ARE LITERALLY EATING SHIT
There is poo in basically 100% of hamburger meat. 90% of pork chops and ground turkey and 95% of chicken breasts are "contaminated with fecal matter" says this FDA study. Oh, so delicious.
EXTINCTION
Finishing on a high note! We humans are an unprecedented "global super-predator" responsible for an enormous loss of biodiversity - a rate of about 140,000 species each year are extinct because of us. Our meat consumption is considered one of the primary contributors to this mass extinction. Man, we suck. As in, we are literally sucking the life out of the planet.
WHAT NEXT?
Our individual efforts won't have much of an impact if there are only a few of us making these small changes. The more people we can get involved, the bigger a difference we can make. Please use the buttons below to share this page on Facebook, or to pin it to Pinterest. We'll be getting on Twitter soon!
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The idea is that these challenges are just a beginning. Next week, there will be a new challenge, because most of us have the attention span of goldfish. However, aim to keep this first challenge rolling and take another little step forward with it.