For ca. 1 år siden stillede jeg mig selv et spørgsmål: "Vidende hvad jeg ved, hvorfor er jeg så ikke blevet vegetar?" Jeg er trods alt en af de "grønne". Jeg voksede op med hippieforældre i en bjælkehytte. Jeg startede en hjemmeside der hedder Treehugger. Jeg interesserer mig for den slags. Jeg vidste at bare det at spise én hamburger om dagen kan øge min risiko for at dø med en 1/3. Jeg vidste at de 10 milliader slagtedyr vi hvert år opdrætter bliver opdrættet under fabrikslignende forhold som vi, hyklerisk, aldrig ville overveje for vores egne katte, hunde og andre kæledyr. Miljømæssigt er kød, helt utroligt, skyld i mere udslip end al transport biler, tog, fly, busser, både, det hele. Og kødproduktionen bruger 100 gange mere vand end produktionen af de fleste grøntsager gør.
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.
Jeg vidste også at jeg ikke var alene. Vi som et samfund spiser dobbelt så meget kød som vi gjorder i 50'erne. Så hvad der en gang var det lille ekstra, er nu hovedmåltidet, og meget oftere. Egentlig burde en enkelt af disse kendsgerninger have været nok til at blive vegetar. Men alligevel sad jeg der og sp..., sp..., sp..., spiste en stor, gammel bøf.
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.
Så hvorfor trak jeg tiden ud? Jeg indså at det der forelå var en binær løsning. Det var enten: du er en kødspiser, eller du er en vegetar. Og jeg var nok ikke helt klar. Forestil dig din sidste hamburger. (Latter) Så min fornuft, mine gode intentioner, var i konflikt med mine smagsløg. Og jeg sagde til mig selv at jeg ville gøre det senere. Og overraskende nok, kom senere aldrig. Lyder det bekendt?
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?
Så jeg spekulerede, kunne der være en tredie løsning? Og jeg tænkte over det. Og jeg fandt på endnu en løsning. Og jeg har gjort det det seneste år, og det er fantastisk. Det hedder "hverdags vegetar". Navnet siger det hele. Intet med ansigt mandag til fredag. I weekenderne er det dit eget valg. Enkelt. Hvis du ønsker at tage det til næste niveau så husk at de store syndere i forbindelse med miljømæssig skade og helbred er rødt og forarbejdet kød. Så du vil gerne bytte dem ud med noget godt og bæredygtig fisk. Det er så struktureret at det ender med at være nemt at huske. Og det er ok at bryde reglerne af og til. Trods alt svarer 5 dage om ugen til 70% af dit kødindtag.
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.
Det har været et fantastisk program - hverdagsvegetar. Jeg sætter mindre fodspor. Jeg forurener mindre. Jeg har bedre samvittighed over for dyrene. Jeg sparer endda penge. Men bedst af alt, jeg er sundere. Jeg ved at jeg kommer til at leve længere, og jeg har endda tabt mig en smule.
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.
Så venligst spørg dig selv, for dit eget helbreds skyld, for din pengepungs skyld, for miljøets og dyrenes skyld hvad der stopper dig i give hverdagsvegetar en chance? Faktisk, hvis vi alle spiste halvt så meget kød, ville det være det samme som hvis halvdelen af os var vegetarer.
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.
Mange tak.
Thank you.
(Klapsalver)
(Applause)