Carnivore Dinosaur

I’d been hoping that Green Thing would ask me to do a guest blog on... well... anything really! As long as it’s not about eating less meat I thought, (a sizzlingly tough topic, with much at steak)!

You’ve guessed the rest. Meat it was to be. An area where I struggle, personally, despite knowing it’s a vital piece of the green lifestyle jigsaw.  But since the ethos of Carbon Coach is ‘do as I do’, it’s a topic I simply can’t ‘teach’ yet.  But I can be honest.

I prefer ‘eyes-wide-open’ positivity to guilt. I tell my clients: “Just because you burn up a global citizens fair annual carbon quota in a single day doesn’t make you a bad person, Mr or Mrs High-Powered Businessperson, it just means we have a monster of an opportunity for creative carbon shift here.”

So I don’t beat myself up for enjoying meat, but I am always on the look-out for the positive benefits of eating less of it.  And therein lies the problem. No-one ever has or ever will give up anything voluntarily without first convincing themselves that the gains outweigh the losses.

That’s not too hard with the re-discovered delights of a Mini Cooper diesel, Eurostar 1st class, or more efficient home technologies, but going Easy On The Meat, it turns out, ‘aint so easy.

Apart from feeling slightly smug in the short term, the real benefit of eating less meat is better health or getting into shape (both of which I could do with ;-)  But these are longer term gains, and people always find it harder to care about things the further off in the future they seem to be (like planning for old age for instance).

The real opportunity, it seemed to me, was to explore the whole idea of moderation. I love the old adage “Moderation in all things”,  but is it really true that less is more? That with discipline comes the precious gift of fulfillment?

Funnily enough, yes it is! This last month I have found genuine pleasure in meat moderation. The trick, it seems, is to wait until you feel the time is right for you, make the habit shift, then celebrate it. (Then stick with it.) And I know there are plenty of delicious taste sensations and surprising culinary delights awaiting me and my family from vegetarian recipes to keep me on the right path.

Excitingly, and perhaps fortunately, half of my family has long felt an attraction to experiment with vegetarian, so we can shift together now. And importantly, my high-on-the-meat athletic sons will be left free to make their own decisions, in their own time. If I can avoid moralizing then they might just pick up on the ‘aroma’ that delights me!

OK, I am not veggie yet - I can feel your disappointment with me. However, I am cutting back on meat, and guess what – now I have less of it - I enjoy it more! 

It’s interesting to see how long-established behaviours like buying the latest thing we don’t really need and then chucking it away six months later can change so fast because of a recession.

Many other things will soon be utterly passé too (daaarling). Like jetting around the world for lunch (whatever you’re eating). Or driving when you could walk, cycle or take public transport. Or an overly meaty diet. They’ll all seem like relics from another age, like the habits of dirty dinosaurs.


[This green thing guest blog is by Green Thing advisor Dave Hampton the carbon coach www.carboncoach.com]

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