Rambling Lemurian

I like beef. Beef is great. Chicken is good. Pork and turkey are ok. I’ve started to like some fish but I’ve never been a big fan. But a nice juicy steak is the best.

But I like the Earth too. I like having trees, and wild animals around. I prefer snow in February instead of hail and tornado warnings. I like going outside and being able to breathe. I like oceans that have fish and aren’t boiling.

The problem is that beef makes a lot of methane. Or at least the way the beef and dairy industry operate in the US leads to a ton of methane being released into the atmosphere. There are roughly 1.5 billion cows on Earth today. All those cow farts and burps release enough methane into the atmosphere that it’s made eating dairy and beef into a bigger ethical problem. So what’s the solution for the climate-conscious carnivores like me?

Years ago I bought the hype around the new “fake meat” companies, literally. I bought Beyond Meat’s stock right after they went public and made $1500 in 3 weeks. And to invest in my investment, I went out at bought a pack of Beyond Meat burger patties. I carefully read the instructions and looked at a couple blogs to make sure I’d cook it correctly. I was ready to make the plunge. I was going to save the planet, one fake burger patty at a time.

Reader, they were gross.

Soon afterwards, a coworker came into the office with some frozen elk meat. He shot the elk on a work trip in Colorado or something and offered me a few pounds. I’d never had it but I’m not one to turn down free meat. It was winter, perfect chili season. I was planning on making a big pot of chili with my normal mix of bison, beef and/or pork, but thanks to the serendipitous delivery of elk meat I could try something new.

Reader, it was not gross. In fact it was great. I shared some with said coworker and family and received rave reviews. It was like my eyes were opened to a brand new world of red meat. Now elk isn’t my favorite meat. It’s super lean and gamey, and IMO doesn’t have a lot of flavor on its own. But cooking with elk led me into venison and I haven’t looked back since that fateful day.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love a steak and a greasy hamburger. But my overall consumption of beef has gone way down. I no longer keep ground beef in the freezer for every other dinner. Instead I’ve replaced it with venison. Whenever I mention my preference for venison now, people assume I shot the deer myself or know some hunters. People, please check your grocery store’s meat shelf. There’s a decent chance there’s some venison right next to the beef. And with the growth of the brand Force of Nature, you can find a dedicated freezer for venison, elk, and wild boar meat too. So it’s readily available for you if you just look around.

I’m not going to pretend to be a dietician and say venison is super healthy. In reality, I’d assume all red meat isn’t great for you. But I know that one deer emits way less methane emissions than one cow. Venison has only 27% of the total carbon footprint of beef, and it’s even less if you hunt it yourself. (I do all my hunting at the grocery store though.) Even if you just switched out half your beef consumption to venison, you can make a significant positive impact on your personal carbon footprint. And if a significant portion of the population did it, it would reduce the demand for cattle which eventually reduces the supply, and therefore the total methane emissions of the worldwide cattle industry.

So next time you’re at the grocery store getting your typical pound of ground beef, take a second to see if there’s some venison, elk, lamb, or even bison around. Sometimes it’s good for the planet to kill a different animal.