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.
Prije otprilike godinu dana, postavio sam si pitanje: "Znajući ono što znam zašto nisam vegetarijanac?" Nakon svega, ja sam jedan od "zelenih". Odrastao sam s hipi roditeljima u brvnari. Pokrenuo sam web stranicu Treehugger (grlitelj drveta). Stalo mi je do tih stvari. Znam kako jedan hamburger dnevno povećava moj rizik od umiranja za trećinu. Okrutnost, znao sam kako se 10 milijardi životinja uzgaja zbog mesa, one odrastaju u tvorničkim uvjetima koje mi, licemjerno, ne bismo ni razmotrili za naše mačke, pse i druge ljubimce. Okolišno, meso, čudesno, izaziva više emisije nego sav transport zajedno, automobili, vlakovi, avioni, autobusi, brodovi, svi zajedno. A proizvodnja govedine koristi 100 puta više vode nego većina biljaka.
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.
Također znam kako nisam sam. Mi, kao društvo jedemo dva puta više mesa nego u 1950-ima. Ono što je nekada bio specijalitet, mala poslastica, danas je glavno, više redovito jelo. Stvarno, svaki od tih pogleda bi trebao biti dovoljan da postanem vegetarijanac. Ipak, eto mene, pik, pik, pik, bodem u veliki, stari odrezak.
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?
Zašto sam odugovlačio? Shvatio sam kako sam bio razapet između binarnih rješenja. Bilo je ili si mesožder, ili si vegetarijanac. Pretpostavljam kako ja jednostavno nisam bio spreman. Zamisliti svoj zadnji hamburger. (Smijeh) Tako su moj zdravi razum, moje dobre namjere, bili u sukobu s mojim osjetilima okusa. Obvezao bih se kako ću to napraviti kasnije. I ne na veliko iznenađenje, kasnije nikada ne bi došlo. Zvuči vam poznato?
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.
Pitao sam se, postoji li treće rješenje? II razmišljao sam o tome. I dosjetio se jednog. I to radim posljednjih godinu dana, i to je sjajno. Zove se vegetarijanac radnim danom. Ime vam govori sve. Ništa s licem od ponedjeljak do petka. Vikendom, vaš izbor. Jednostavno. Ako želite otići na slijedeću razinu, zapamtite, glavni krivci, u smislu štete za okoliš i zdravlje, su crvena i procesuirana mesa. Zato želite to zamijeniti za nekom dobrom, održivo uzgojenom ribom. Strukturirano je, tako da je jednostavno za zapamtiti. I nije strašno ako tu i tamo zgriješite. Uostalom, sudržavajući se pet dana u tjednu znači smanjiti 70% vaš unos mesa.
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.
Program je bio sjajan, vegetarijanac radnim danom. Moj otisak je manji, manje zagađujem. Bolje se osjećam razmišljajući o životinjama. Štedim novac. Najbolje od svega, zdraviji sam. Znam da ću živjeti duže, i čak sam izgubio malo na težini.
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.
Zato se molim vas, zapitajte, za vaše zdravlje, za vaš novac, za okoliš, za životinje, što vas sprječava da pokušate s vegetarijanstvom radnim danom? Nakon svega, kada bi svi mi jeli upola manje mesa, bilo bi kao da je polovica nas vegetarijanci.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)