Last month marked my very first podcast with Fearless Parent Radio, a provocative weekly radio show that’s on the pulse of new parenting. The tone of the cohosts is positive and compassionate, with an emphasis on health and wellness that is evidence based and informed by research, common sense, and traditional wisdom.
My guest was the smart, witty, and hilarious Dr. Kaayla Daniel who I am also glad to count as a friend. Â Dr. Daniel is the author of The Whole Soy Story which is a must read for anyone who might still be under the impression that soy is a healthfood.
Dr. Daniel has also recently finished the book Nourishing Broth: An Old-Fashioned Remedy for the Modern World with co-author Sally Fallon Morell, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation.  I received my preview copy of this fascinating book just a few weeks ago, and I look forward to sharing more about it in the coming weeks as we approach its release date in September.  Make sure to get on the list for preorder information by clicking here.
During our Fearless Parent discussion, Dr. Daniel and I chatted about the Meatless Mondays trend and why it isn’t as green a habit as it is portrayed to be. Â Some of the topics we covered include:
- Why the true threat to our environment is not animals.
- Why plowing pastures and rangeland to plant crops is not sustainable and won’t do much to feed the hungry and save the environment.
- How America’s topsoil has been devastated by mono cropping and how animals are the key to restoring the health of our soils.
- Why if people give up meat via Meatless Mondays, the alternatives: grains, beans and tofu are not a good option for seekers of truly vibrant health or those concerned with the environment.
Click here to listen in or download via iTunes or Podbean.
I hope you enjoy it!
Hi Sarah! I am a newbie at healthy foods and am researching and falling in love with all I am learning and applying. I googled pickling vs fermenting and thank God found you! Thank you for your expertise and guidance. I can’t wait to ferment cabbage next week.
I have a garden full of small delicious cucumbers. Is their some fermenting recipe I can use for them?
Yes, I have a video on how to ferment your seasonal cukes 🙂
I agree that doing Meatless Mondays might not necessarily be green, or healthy. I am doing them for discipline. My favorite meatless, yet totally filling, veggies are eggplant and portabella mushrooms. I occasionally do fermented tempeh (from a source other than ConAgra… and definitely the ingredient list is REAL, as opposed to theirs.) Okra is also a good standby as a satisfying base for a meal. I do consider my Meatless Mondays to be simply meat and seafood-free — healthy dairy (goat cheese or goat yogurt is okay) and farmers” market eggs are fine, too. Occasionally I might not do either of those, but it’s a choice which depends on a given Monday.
One simply does not need to eat meat at every meal, and there are indeed other meat-free meals I make each week. Monday I set aside for the discipline. I do agree we need some of at least the seafood category of food on a regular basis to maintain ultimate health.
I am in agricultural and most of the grain grown in the United States (and around the world) is for animal feed, not direct human consumption. I know that you eat grass fed beef, but 85% of Americans eat grain fed beef and if everyone converted to only grass fed beef, there would not be enough pasture to keep up the same consumption levels. And pork and chicken are very reliant on grain production. If the same land in the United States that is used to grow grain for livestock (beef, hogs, chickens) was used to grow food for humans it would be capable of feeding 800 million people. So the whole point of the pod cast and story is built on quicksand. There is nothing wrong with meatless Mondays although I don’t observe them myself. It just seems that you did not really think this through nor did you rely on the facts. Yes, the large production of corn and grains is not good for the environment. But most of that infrastructure is centered around the feeding of beef, hogs and chicken, not vegetables, fruits and grains for human consumption.
There is nothing wrong with consuming meat. I am not saying that all. I am just contesting the premise of your article and stating the fact that a majority of the grain production in the United States is for animal feed. You are making the assumption that more land would be taken out of pasture to grow vegetables and fruits by not eating meat on Monday. That could not be further from the truth or the reality. Eating less meat in general would reduce the dependence on growing so much grain and it would make it possible to have more grass feed beef. But as far as pork and chicken, how do feed all those animals without grain?
Steve, I can only give you my personal experience in switching to pastured grass fed meat eggs and foul. First and foremost it is more expensive hence less demand. What is also true is that it is much more nourishing. I am filled with about 1/2 the portion. I know this is not scientific. Even more to the point I had to drive through OK and outside OKC there is a huge feed lot. My gosh the smell and sight was disgusting. Somewhere sustainability enters the picture and I do not believe factory production is sustainable nor good for the planet so I chose not to support it.
I could not agree more. I think you mean free range chickens and eggs. Chickens don’t eat grass. Even free range chickens eat some type of grain. My neighbors have their own urban chickens and the chicken feed is milled barley. I agree factory farming is not sustainable over time. My point was that the premise of the article was over simplistic and inaccurate. If we ate more fruits and vegetables and less meat, there would be less demand for grain. It would not mean that more pasture land would be taken out to grow fruits and vegetables. It would actually be the opposite. I eat meat but it is not the center of my diet.
Back in the mid seventies, I believe it was the first ever Earth Day, I was an undergraduate at a university near Boston. We were all supposed to fast (except for fruit juice) on that day, although the dining hall was open. At dinnertime, the sight of all those hungry students dutifully, puritanically, and self righteously drinking university-provided fruit juice, milling around the quad that was at the entrance of the dining hall, was a clear message to me that something was very wrong. I went in the dining hall, alone, and ate my meal. The hall was almost completely empty, and the school served rib eye steaks that day. It was glorious.
So good to hear from others who are doing their own thinking instead of falling in line with the glamour of popularity.
I will bet that rib eye steak was delicious . And I am sure it was grain feed. The late 60’s and 70’s was the peak of grain fed beef production. And you are right, there was nothing wrong with it. But at the same time there was nothing wrong with the student’s celebrating earth day by fasting.
I agree and disagree with you. I follow a plant-based lifestyle for two reasons: health and compassion. The first one is because I don’t need to ingest cholesterol coming from animals, I don’t need to ingest the anxiety and antibiotics from animals. The second one is because if I don’t eat my cat or dog, why do I need to eat cows, pigs, chickens or turkeys? I think there are other healthier and more compassionate ways to eat without involving animals. I do agree that if you choose to eat animals, then choose free roaming, free range farms so you don’t support factory farms…