Hello, my friends and family! It’s been a long time. Welcome to 2016. I hope you are rested and full of fire at the start of this new year.

Today is my blog’s third birthday, and I’d like to celebrate by making a shameless plug for Meatless Mondays. It won’t hurt a bit.

The idea is that you don’t eat meat one day per week, in order to reduce your carbon footprint and make an effort to save the planet.

Here are some jarring points from a 2014 Huffington Post article, which is based off of a study of the contribution of farm animal production to climate change, as well as a report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

• Animal agriculture contributes about 18 percent of the gases that cause climate change. This means that animal agriculture is responsible for producing more climate change per year than the entire transportation sector.
• “It takes around 15 pounds of grain to make one pound of beef – which can feed a couple people for a few hours. In comparison, 13 pounds of grain fed to humans directly can feed 13 people for most of the day.”
• With the drought in California, we have been working hard to limit our water use. However, 90% of the water in California goes to agriculture. It is important that this water be spent well—on crops and products that use the water efficiently and responsibly. Meat is one of the least efficient things you can grow given a gallon of water.

I don’t mean to be a grinch, but if you really want to do this for the planet, you shouldn’t eat fish either. We’re in the midst of a worldwide overfishing crisis too.

I’ve been practicing flexible environmental vegetarianism since my freshman year of college. I currently eat meat about twice per month, and enjoy the perks of flexibility. I’m not asking you to do anything crazy. In fact, I’m not even directly asking you do anything at all. I just wanted you to know that this is something that I care deeply about, and that it is a cause that you can support, even once per week, without upending your life.

Are you looking for a way to be powerful in 2016? In eating less meat, you will be making a gesture to show that you care about the environmental impact of your actions. You will be voting with you dollar, your fork, and your words (it only works if you tell someone about it once in a while)—that you want to change our food culture to one that is more responsible and sustainable. Basically, you want to get more out for what you put in. That’s my daily definition of power.

Let me know if you decide to try it. I’ll cheer you on. I wish you peace, focus, and health this year, no matter what you eat on Mondays.

Love,

Alexa