The PB&J Campaign

There have been tons of conservation campaigns launched by governments and environmental organization over the last few years, and most of them have focused almost exclusively on electricity use and transportation. Now, granted, those two types of consumption make up a huge proportion of our total energy use, but the unfortunate reality that these campaigns have bumped into is that human behaviour seems especially rigid when it comes to things like transportation and electricity use. People find their habits, and stick to them pretty firmly.

One area where substantial energy savings are possible that has yet to be mined by mainstream conservation groups is food consumption. Pretty much the only idea to gain any traction so far is the "100 Mile Diet" and the idea of eating locally, which is a great concept, but which also requires a significant individual commitment. This is kind of a shame, because there's a much easier way to take a HUGE bite out of your ecological footprint (get it? bite? because we're talking about food!), and that is to eat less meat.

First things first, let me just state that I am not advocating a mass conversion to vegetarianism or veganism, though they are by far the least energy-intensive diets. I loves me some steak. In fact, I love just about every kind of animal I've ever encountered on a plate. Problem is, the consumption of meat for caloric energy is HEINOUSLY inefficient.

Basically, we need to put energy into the agricultural system to grow plants, then we need to harvest them, and then feed the plants to animals, who are not very efficient at turning plant energy into caloric energy in the form of animal tissue. Then, we've got to keep the animals alive, well fed and watered for a few months to a few years (depending on the animal), then there's butchering and processing on top of it. If you cut out that whole animal portion of the system and eat plants and plant-based products directly, you are obtaining caloric energy at an efficiency rate an order of magnitude better than with meat.

The upside to this large efficiency gap between meat- and plant-based meals is that you don't have to alter your regular diet that much to make a substantial difference. One vegetarian meal per day can save as much as 2.5 pounds of CO2, 133 gallons of water (!), and 24 sq. ft. of land use. These numbers are courtesy of the PB&J Campaign, which is aiming to get people to switch from a meat-based lunch to a PB&J sandwich every once in a while.


How can you go wrong? You get to save the environment just a little bit, plus you get a delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich! If you haven't had a PB&J in a while, go make yourself one. I'm willing to bet you've forgotten how delicious they are.

Bonus tip: it's raspberry season. Go get yourself some fresh raspberries and throw them in between some toast with peanut butter and raspberry jam. It's the haute cuisine PB&J upgrade.