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.
Duela urtebete inguru, zera galdetu nion neure buruari: "Dakidana jakinda, zergatik ez naiz begetarianoa?" Azken finean, ingurumenak axola dit: Guraso hippy bik hazi ninduten egurrezko etxola batean. "TreeHugger" izeneko web-orria sortu nuen. Kontu horiek axola didate. Banekien egunean hanburgesa bakarra jate hutsak hiltzeko arriskua heren batean handitzen zuela. Krudelkeria: banekien urtero haragitarako hazitako 10 mila milioi animalia industria-abeltegietako baldintzetan hazten ditugula. Hipokritak gara baldintza horiek, ez ditugulako nahi gure katu, txakur edo bestelako maskotentzat. Harrigarriki, haragia ekoizteak gehiago kutsatzen du garraio guztiek batera baino: autoak, trenak, hegazkinak, autobusak, itsasontziak, guztiak. Behikiak ekoizteko, 100 aldiz ur gehiago behar da barazki gehienak hazteko baino.
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.
Bakarra ez nintzela ere banekien. Gizarte gisa, 50. hamarkadan jaten genuen haragi kopurua bikoiztu dugu; garai batean noizbehinkako gutizia zena ohikoagoa eta plater nagusia da egun. Egiatan, arrazoi horiek begetariano izateko konbentzitu behar nindukete. Halere, mauka-mauka ari nintzen haragi-xerra eder bat jaten.
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?
Zerk eragozten zidan baina? Konturatu nintzen aldebiko irtenbidea aurkeztu zidatela. Bietako bat: haragijalea zara, ala begetarianoa. Eta uste dut orduan ez nengoela guztiz prest. Imajinatu: zure azken hanburgesa. (Barreak) Zentzua eta nire borondate ona dastamen-papilen arerio nituen. "Gerora" egingo nuela hitzeman nuen, eta, nola ez, ez nuen inoiz egin. Ezaguna egiten al zaizue?
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.
Zera pentsatu nuen: ba ote zen hirugarren aukerarik? Hausnartu eta erantzun bat topatu nuen. Azken urtean, hori egiten aritu naiz. Aparta da. "Astegunetako begetariano" du izena. Izenak berak dio: astelehenetik ostiralera, haragirik ez. Asteburuan, aukeran. Erraza da. Harago joan nahi izanez gero, gogoan izan: kaltegarrienak, ingurumenari eta osasunari erreparatuta, haragi gorri eta prozesatuak direla. Horren ordez, hautatu modu jasangarrian hazitako arraina. Arauturik dago. Beraz, gogoratzen erraza da, ez da larria noizbehinka jaramonik ez egitea. Astean bost egunez haragirik ez jatea kontsumoa %70 murriztea da.
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.
"Astegunetako begetariano" programa aparta izan da. Ingurumen-inpaktua txikitu eta gutxiago kutsatzen dut, animaliengatik hobe sentitu, eta aurrezten ari naiz. Onena zera da: osasuntsuago nago, eta badakit luzeago biziko naizela. Apur bat ere argaldu naiz.
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.
Mesedez, izan kontuan zuen osasuna, dirua, ingurumena eta animaliak. Zerk eragozten dizu saiatzea? Azken finean, denek jaten dugun haragia erdira murriztuko bagenu, gutakoen erdia begetariano litzateke. Mila esker.
Thank you.
(Txaloak)
(Applause)