For those concerned about climate change enough to radically change your diet, which is no small feat, I’d highly recommend giving some of the meat substitutes a try if you haven’t already.
While some can have an off flavor, there are some types that are genuinely indistinguishable from the real thing. In my experience, Impossible Meat and Quorn brand beef, chicken, and sausage substitutes are literally as good as real meat, and can be used without modification in any recipe that calls for them.
Impossible meat is somewhat expensive, but you can stock up when it goes on sale, or when you see it at costco. Quorn on the other hand is quite affordable and widely available in the freezer section of most grocery stores (and as an added bonus is made in Ireland, so you can buy an EU product at the same time!).
An even cheaper option is Seitan, which can also be indistinguishable from real meat, and can be created in a few different ways.
You can stretch out these meat alternatives in things that use ground meat by adding in some lentils to bulk out a meal without taking away from the meaty-ness of it, or even use lentils themselves as a meat substitute, though that won’t taste the same and will be its own thing (but very economical!).
I was a pretty heavy meat eater most of my life, but the horrible conditions of factory farms combined with the climate crisis finally pushed me into trying these alternatives, and I’m quite happy to report that I can still make all of the meat-filled recipes I grew up with thanks to these alternatives, allowing me (and my family) to cut real meat out of our diet.
I seriously recommend giving it a try, I think you’ll be really impressed with how far meat substitutes have come.
Concur with all of that. I’m not vegan yet but took these easy first steps:
- meat 1-2 times per week, instead of daily. The frequency is dropping from one year to the next.
- refuse to pay full price for meat. Wait until the meat is about to expire and buy it after the grocer is forced to mark it down (30—50% off). This helps quite a bit because you dramatically cut down the profits that drive the meat industry (your portion of those profits). Since beef is the top problem, I insist on a near-expiry markdown of 50% before I will buy it.
Better than vegan: steal the meat. Vegans are just neutral. They neither contribute nor cause detriment to animal agriculture. If you shoplift the meat, you cost them money and make the business case even less sustainable than vegans.
Another option: hunt wild game and eat that in place of farmed meat.
Seconding all of this - these are great recs for drop-in replacements for regular meat. Going vegetarian is a heck of a lot easier than it used to be; we cook a ton of meals right out of my grandmothers’ cookbooks using meat substitutes.
Especially for processed meats like sausage, chicken nuggets, hamburgers, or those premade frozen chicken cor don bleu things, I’d say I prefer the meatless alternatives on taste and texture - even aside from wanting to reduce the harm I cause.
