What Do Led Light Bulbs And Vegetarians Have In Common?

What do LED light bulbs and vegetarianism have in common?

They’re both great solutions to climate change. Project Drawdown ranks a plant-rich diet and switching household lighting to LED as the 4th and 33rd most effective solutions to combating this global issue. At Tala, we like to make smart choices, which is why we care about what we eat. ​

Reducing your consumption of meat is one of the most effective ways you can contribute to preventing the effects of climate change as an individual. 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from rearing animals for food. Beef these days is typically grain-fed (rather than pasture fed), requiring 28 times more land and 11 times more irrigation water to rear compared to pork, poultry, eggs or dairy.

If you didn’t eat meat one day per week, the reduction in your annual carbon footprint would be equivalent to that of switching 5 incandescent light bulbs to LED.
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Which is why we’re formally introducing Meat Free Mondays at Tala. We want to encourage each other to make small changes towards more sustainable living. While vegetarianism or veganism can be too big of a change for many people, just cutting down on the consumption of red meat has a significant impact on your environmental footprint.

To celebrate Earth Day a few weeks ago, we sat down as a team for a special lunch catered by Becky and Katie from The Local Squeeze who create delicious vegan food from surplus ingredients. They’ve provided some tasty tips to cook vegetarian meals like a boss.

Ingredients to use:
Tofu – high in protein and calcium
Mushrooms – healthy and create a meaty flavour and texture
Lentils – very easy to replace in meat recipes and a great filler to any dish
Beans and legumes – healthy, filling and cheap – can put in soups or make bean burgers
Soya mince – Great meat replacement
Quinoa, eggs, almonds – all high in protein

Recipes:
www.thelocalsqueeze.co.uk
www.lazycatkitchen.com
www.veganricha.com
www.sproutedkitchen.com

We enjoyed vegetable and spice soup, topped with baked courgettes and a made-from-scratch basil paste.