carbon conscience

Found myself in mixed company (omnivores, carnivores...) the other day, and stuck my neck out by quoting internet-sourced statistics - a meat-based diet requires 7 times more land than a plant-based diet, meat production uses 10 to 20 times more energy than grain production, red meat production uses 100 times more water than...and so on.

Since I was quoting "facts" I couldn't verify myself, I was quickly backed into a corner - but it made me think...

I wonder if anyone has made calculations comparing the carbon footprint of a fruitarian lifestyle with other options. My own experience tells me that the outcome would be very interesting indeed.

A fruitarian kitchen is a very uncomplicated, uncluttered place. No cooking means No need for most of what you'd find in a "normal" kitchen - which means that none of that stuff needs to be manufactured, marketed, transported, powered, discarded... and if your garden (or your neighbour's garden) feeds you - no packaging, no transport, no marketing machinery, none of that commercial madness & misery...

And that is but the beginning... now think of the environmental balance sheet, which begins with fruitarians planting trees, and trees, and more trees, and not needing to cut down trees to fuel cooking fires....

If I hadn't chosen this way for myself a long, long time ago, I suspect that I would have found the carbon footprint issue a convincing enough argument to say goodbye to the bloody fleshpots... if you know what I mean.