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I've been struggling with exactly the right statistic to encapsulate why it's worthwhile to elevate meat into the energy conversation, but I think this, from the PB&J Campaign, might do the trick:
Each time you have a plant-based lunch like a PB&J you'll reduce your carbon footprint by the equivalent of 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions over an average animal-based lunch like a hamburger, a tuna sandwich, grilled cheese, or chicken nuggets. For dinner you save 2.8 pounds and for breakfast 2.0 pounds of emissions.Those 2.5 pounds of emissions at lunch are about forty percent of the greenhouse gas emissions you'd save driving around for the day in a hybrid instead of a standard sedan.And it's much easier. A lot of folks are cautious about engaging the conversation around meat because culinary decisions seems so deeply woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. It's one thing to ask people to change their minds about Democrats; it's a whole other to ask them to change their approach to dinner. But in this, it's much like two other extremely hard, extremely personal fights that progressives have engaged in recent years: Tobacco and transportation. In fact, it's easier than they were.
