Ongeveer ’n jaar gelede, het ek myself gevra: "Inaggenome wat ek weet, hoekom is ek nie ’n vegetariër nie?" Ek is immers een van die groen ouens. Ek het in ’n houthut met hippie ouers grootgeword. Ek't ’n webtuiste genaamd Treehugger begin -- ek gee om oor hierdie goed. Ek weet dat ’n enkele hamburger per dag my sterfrisiko met ’n derde kan vermeerder. Wreedheid: ek weet dat die 10 miljard diere wat ons elke jaar vir vleis teel, onder fabrieksomstandighede grootgemaak word wat ons, hipokrities genoeg, nooit sou oorweeg vir ons eie katte, honde en ander troeteldiere nie. Uit ’n omgewingsoogpunt veroorsaak vleis, verbasend genoeg, meer uitlaatgasse as alle vervoer saam, motors, treine, vliegtuie, busse, bote, alles saam. Beesvleis produksie gebruik 100 keer meer water as wat meeste groente vereis.
About a year ago, I asked myself a question: "Knowing what I know, why am I not a vegetarian?" After all, I'm one of the green guys: I grew up with hippie parents in a log cabin. I started a site called TreeHugger -- I care about this stuff. I knew that eating a mere hamburger a day can increase my risk of dying by a third. Cruelty: I knew that the 10 billion animals we raise each year for meat are raised in factory farm conditions that we, hypocritically, wouldn't even consider for our own cats, dogs and other pets. Environmentally, meat, amazingly, causes more emissions than all of transportation combined: cars, trains, planes, buses, boats, all of it. And beef production uses 100 times the water that most vegetables do.
Ek het ook geweet ek is nie alleen nie. As ’n samelewing eet ons twee maal soveel vleis as wat ons het in die 1950’s. Wat op ’n tyd die klein, spesiale bykos was, is nou die hoofmaal en baie meer gereeld. So eintlik behoort enige van dié aspekte genoeg te wees om vegetaries te word. En tog was ek -- tjk, tjk, tjk -- aan't smul aan ’n lekker groot steak.
I also knew that I'm not alone. We as a society are eating twice as much meat as we did in the 50s. So what was once the special little side treat now is the main, much more regular. So really, any of these angles should have been enough to convince me to go vegetarian. Yet, there I was -- chk, chk, chk -- tucking into a big old steak.
So waarom het ek gedraal? Ek't besef dat die opsie wat aan my gestel is 'n binêre oplossing is. Jy is óf 'n vleiseter, óf 'n vegetariër. En ek was seker net nie heeltemal gereed nie. Stel jou voor: jou laaste hamburger. (Gelag) So my logika, my goeie bedoelings, was in konflik met my smaaksintuig. Ek sou besluit om dit later te doen. En snaaks genoeg, het later nooit gekom nie. Klink dit bekend?
So why was I stalling? I realized that what I was being pitched was a binary solution. It was either you're a meat eater or you're a vegetarian, and I guess I just wasn't quite ready. Imagine your last hamburger. (Laughter) So my common sense, my good intentions, were in conflict with my taste buds. And I'd commit to doing it later, and not surprisingly, later never came. Sound familiar?
Ek wonder toe, is daar dalk ’n derde oplossing? Ek't daaroor gedink en met een voorendag gekom. Ek doen dit al die afgelope jaar, en dis fantasties. Ek noem dit: weeksdag-groentjie. Die naam sê alles. Niks met ’n gesig nie, Maandag tot Vrydag. Oor die naweek, jou keuse. Eenvoudig. Sou jy dit verder wou vat, onthou die hoof sondebokke, in terme van omgewingskade en gesondheid, is rooi- en verwerkte vleis. So jy kan dit uitruil met goeie, volhoubare vis. Dis gestruktureerd, so dis maklik om te onthou. En dis aanvaarbaar om nou en dan af te wyk. Vyf dae ’n week sny immers jou vleisverbruik met 70 persent.
So I wondered, might there be a third solution? And I thought about it, and I came up with one. I've been doing it for the last year, and it's great. It's called weekday veg. The name says it all: Nothing with a face Monday through Friday. On the weekend, your choice. Simple. If you want to take it to the next level, remember, the major culprits in terms of environmental damage and health are red and processed meats. So you want to swap those out with some good, sustainably harvested fish. It's structured, so it ends up being simple to remember, and it's okay to break it here and there. After all, cutting five days a week is cutting 70 percent of your meat intake.
Weeksdag-groentjie het goed gewerk sover. My impak is kleiner, ek verminder besoedeling. Ek voel beter oor die diere. Ek spaar selfs geld. Beste van alles: ek's gesonder, ek weet ek gaan langer leef, en ek't selfs ’n bietjie gewig verloor.
The program has been great, weekday veg. My footprint's smaller, I'm lessening pollution, I feel better about the animals, I'm even saving money. Best of all, I'm healthier, I know that I'm going to live longer, and I've even lost a little weight.
Vra jouself dus asseblief af, vir jou gesondheid, vir jou beursie, vir die omgewing, vir die diere: Wat verhoed jou om weeksdag-groentjie uit te probeer? As ons almal helfte soveel vleis geëet het sou dit wees asof die helfte van ons vegetariërs was.
So, please ask yourselves, for your health, for your pocketbook, for the environment, for the animals: What's stopping you from giving weekday veg a shot? After all, if all of us ate half as much meat, it would be like half of us were vegetarians.
Dankie.
Thank you.
(Applous)
(Applause)