An international campaign on climate change is encouraging people to change the way they eat.
Millions of Slow Food members and supporters all around the world are contributing to this campaign in myriad ways. Slow Food Blue Mountains is inviting locals to get involved by getting meat off centre plate and eating more fruit and veg.
It’s great for community health, great for our planet and much kinder to animals.
Slow Food invites the community to aim to eat local/Australian-grown fresh produce. Strive for 10 veg a day (include one to two pieces of fruit in this).
Sadly only 7 per cent of Australians eat five vegetables and two fruit a day currently recommended in this country. Other countries, including France recommend 10 vegies a day, while in Japan, 13 vegies a day is recommended. The general consensus is the more vegetables we can eat a day the better.
In this meat eating nation, meat consumption has been steadily increasing over the past 20 years, making Australians a hefty contributor to climate change (around 14.5 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions are due to industrial animal production and ever-higher meat consumption). The alarming global statistic, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, is that meat consumption globally has increased five-fold since the mid 1950s with a projected doubling by 2050.
Phase two of the campaign is encouraging people to eat more pulses. These little “powerhouses” are cheap and versatile and packed with protein. Substitute some of that meat/fish/chicken with pulses, or put meat to the side of the plate in smaller portions.
Visit the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/slowfood.bluemountains/ for daily highly-visual quick tips and recipes.