Food or Fuel which do you choose?

If the Carbon Crisis is a result of over consumption, then one needs to think about the food. One of the simplest way to reduce carbon impact is a particularly hard one in the U.S. and that is reducing your consumption of meat. Meat ounce for ounce takes a lot more energy to produce, a steer needs many times it's weight to be ready for the butcher. To understand the direct relationship between food and energy, think about the current trade off covered in this New York Times article detailing the clash between corn for ethanol and corn for feed.

There are numerous benefits to cutting your meat consumption such as increased fiber, general loss of weight and better balance of vitamins. However in our meat based market it's tough. I try to take a five for footprint approach to my meat consumption, at times excluding entirely and other times reducing it to once in a while.

What is scary is that in terms of finance, food and fuel are rarely discretionary, living far away and relying on processed food tells me that there will be a pinch in our pocketbooks. This may be a good thing if you believe economists that is what motivates change.