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.
Rreth nje vit me pare, i bera vetes nje pyetje: "Duke ditur ato qe di pse nuk jam vegjetarian?" Ne fund te fundit jam nje nga ata tipat ekologjik: Jam rritur me prinder hippie ne nje kasolle me trungje. U bera nismetar i nje faqeje interneti te quajtur PerqafuesPemesh-- Mua me interesojne keto gjera. E dija se duke ngrene nje hamburger ne dite mund te rris rrezikun e vdekjes me nje te trete. Mizore: E dija se 10 miliard kafshe qe ne rrisim cdo vit per mish rriten nen kushtet e fermave fabrikuese qe ne, ne menyre hipokrite, as nuk do e merrnim ne konsiderate per macet, qente ose kafshe te tjera te cilat na perkasin. Nga pikepamja e mjedisit, mishi, cuditerisht, shkakton me shume emetime se sa i gjithe kombinimi i transporteve: makina, trena, avione, autobuza, varka, te gjitha bashke. Dhe prodhimi i mishit te lopes perdor 100 here me shume uje se sa gjithe perimet.
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.
Gjithashtu e dija se nuk jam vetem. Ne si shoqeri ushqehemi me mish dy here me shume se sa ne vitet 50-te. Pra ajo cka dikur ishte nje kenaqesi e vogel dhe e vecante tashme eshte kryesore, shume me rregullisht. Pra realisht, cilido nga keto pikepamje duhet te ishte mjaftueshem per te me bindur qe te kthehem ne nje vegjetarian. Po, ja ku isha --cek, cek, cek-- duke u palosur ne nje biftek te madh.
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?
Pra pse po ndaloja? Kuptova se ajo qe une isha duke u larguar ishte nje zgjidhje dyjore. Ishte ose ti je nje mishngrenes ose je nje vegjetarian, dhe me sa duket nuk isha ende gati. Imagjinoni hamburgerin tuaj te fundit. (te qeshura) Pra mendimi im praktik, qellimet e mia te mira, ishin ne konflikt me shijet e mia. U angazhova per ta bere me vone, por "me vone" nuk erdhi kurre. E keni degjuar me pare?
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.
Pra pyeta veten, a mund te kete nje zgjidhje te trete? E mendova dhe perfundova ne nje. Po e bej keto vitet e fundit, dhe eshte fantastike. Quhet dita jave vegjetariane. Emri i thote te gjitha: Asgje me fytyre nga e hena ne te premte. Ne fundjave zgjedhja eshte e juaja. E thjeshte. Nese doni te kaloni ne nivelin tjeter, mbani mend keqberesit kryesor ne termat e demtimit te mjedisit dhe shendetit dhe te mishit kuq te perpunuar. Pra mendoni ti shkembeni ato me pak peshk te mirekultivuar. Eshte e strukturuar, dhe perfundon e lehte per tu mbajtur mend, dhe eshte ne rregull sikur ta shkelesh tek tuk. Ne fund te fundit, duke hequr pese dite ne jave do te thote te ulesh 70 perqind te konsumit te mishit.
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.
Programi ka qene fantastik, ditet e javes vegjetariane. Gjurma ime eshte e vogel, po e pakesoj ndotjen, ndihem me mire per kafshet, madje po kursej dhe para. Por mbi te gjitha, jam me i shendetshem, e di qe do jetoj me gjate, madje kam humbur dhe pak peshe.
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.
Ndaj ju lutem pyesni veten tuaj, per shendetin tuaj, per kuleten tuaj, per mjedisin, per kafshet: Cfare ju ndalon per te provuar diten e javes vegjetariane? Ne fund te fundit, nese te gjithe ne ushqeheshim me gjysmen e mishit do ishte sikur gjysem nga ne te ishim vegjetarian.
Thank you.
Faleminderit.
(Applause)
(Duartrokitje)