A study released by Carnegie Mellon University has found that if you want to green up your dinner table; cut out the red meat.  The study found that eating vegetables and (alternatively) other kinds of animals such as fish and chicken creates fewer greenhouse gas emissions than eating from local sources ONLY.

“We suggest that dietary shift can be a more effective means of lowering an average household’s food-related climate footprint than ‘buying local,’” the researchers write. “Shifting less than one day per week’s worth of calories from red meat and dairy products to chicken, fish, eggs, or a vegetable-based diet achieves more greenhouse-gas reduction than buying all locally sourced food.”

However, it’s important to note that buying food from local sources still significantly reduces food related greenhouse gases. By combining these two methods together (cutting out the red meat and buying locally) you will make a big difference in your “food footprint.”

Read more about it here.

Author Information -  During his spare time Eric writes for and maintains wannaveg.com. For his day job he works for an electronics company in San Diego, CA. Eric has been a vegetarian for about 10 years and believes that going 'green' and reducing meat consumption go hand-in-hand.

Tags: beef, local, study