TED2010
Graham Hill: Why I'm a weekday vegetarian
Filmed:
Readability: 4
2,651,431 views
We all know the arguments that being vegetarian is better for the environment and for the animals -- but in a carnivorous culture, it can be hard to make the change. Graham Hill has a powerful, pragmatic suggestion: Be a weekday veg.
Graham Hill - Journalist
Graham Hill is the founder of TreeHugger.com and LifeEdited; he travels the world to tell stories of sustainability and minimalism. He tweets at @GHill. Full bio
Graham Hill is the founder of TreeHugger.com and LifeEdited; he travels the world to tell stories of sustainability and minimalism. He tweets at @GHill. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:17
About a year ago,
0
2000
2000
00:19
I asked myself a question:
1
4000
2000
00:21
"Knowing what I know,
2
6000
2000
00:23
why am I not a vegetarian?"
3
8000
2000
00:25
After all, I'm one of the green guys:
4
10000
3000
00:28
I grew up with hippie parents in a log cabin.
5
13000
3000
00:31
I started a site called TreeHugger --
6
16000
3000
00:36
I care about this stuff.
7
21000
3000
00:39
I knew that eating a mere hamburger a day
8
24000
2000
00:41
can increase my risk of dying by a third.
9
26000
3000
00:45
Cruelty: I knew that the 10 billion
10
30000
3000
00:48
animals we raise each year for meat
11
33000
3000
00:51
are raised in factory farm conditions
12
36000
3000
00:54
that we, hypocritically, wouldn't even consider
13
39000
3000
00:57
for our own cats, dogs and other pets.
14
42000
3000
01:01
Environmentally, meat, amazingly,
15
46000
3000
01:04
causes more emissions
16
49000
2000
01:06
than all of transportation combined:
17
51000
2000
01:08
cars, trains, planes, buses, boats, all of it.
18
53000
3000
01:12
And beef production uses 100 times the water
19
57000
3000
01:15
that most vegetables do.
20
60000
3000
01:20
I also knew that I'm not alone.
21
65000
3000
01:23
We as a society
22
68000
2000
01:25
are eating twice as much meat
23
70000
2000
01:27
as we did in the 50s.
24
72000
2000
01:30
So what was once the special little side treat
25
75000
3000
01:33
now is the main, much more regular.
26
78000
2000
01:35
So really, any of these angles
27
80000
2000
01:37
should have been enough to convince me to go vegetarian.
28
82000
3000
01:40
Yet, there I was -- chk, chk, chk --
29
85000
2000
01:42
tucking into a big old steak.
30
87000
3000
01:45
So why was I stalling?
31
90000
3000
01:48
I realized that what I was being pitched
32
93000
2000
01:50
was a binary solution.
33
95000
2000
01:52
It was either
34
97000
2000
01:54
you're a meat eater or you're a vegetarian,
35
99000
3000
01:57
and I guess I just wasn't quite ready.
36
102000
3000
02:00
Imagine your last hamburger.
37
105000
3000
02:03
(Laughter)
38
108000
4000
02:07
So my common sense,
39
112000
3000
02:10
my good intentions,
40
115000
3000
02:13
were in conflict with my taste buds.
41
118000
2000
02:15
And I'd commit to doing it later,
42
120000
3000
02:18
and not surprisingly, later never came.
43
123000
3000
02:21
Sound familiar?
44
126000
2000
02:24
So I wondered,
45
129000
2000
02:26
might there be a third solution?
46
131000
3000
02:29
And I thought about it, and I came up with one.
47
134000
2000
02:31
I've been doing it for the last year, and it's great.
48
136000
3000
02:34
It's called weekday veg.
49
139000
3000
02:37
The name says it all:
50
142000
2000
02:39
Nothing with a face Monday through Friday.
51
144000
2000
02:41
On the weekend, your choice.
52
146000
3000
02:45
Simple.
53
150000
2000
02:47
If you want to take it to the next level,
54
152000
2000
02:49
remember, the major culprits
55
154000
2000
02:51
in terms of environmental damage and health
56
156000
3000
02:54
are red and processed meats.
57
159000
2000
02:56
So you want to swap those out
58
161000
2000
02:58
with some good, sustainably harvested fish.
59
163000
3000
03:01
It's structured,
60
166000
2000
03:03
so it ends up being simple to remember,
61
168000
2000
03:05
and it's okay to break it here and there.
62
170000
3000
03:08
After all, cutting five days a week
63
173000
2000
03:10
is cutting 70 percent of your meat intake.
64
175000
3000
03:13
The program has been great, weekday veg.
65
178000
3000
03:16
My footprint's smaller,
66
181000
2000
03:18
I'm lessening pollution,
67
183000
2000
03:20
I feel better about the animals,
68
185000
2000
03:22
I'm even saving money.
69
187000
2000
03:24
Best of all, I'm healthier,
70
189000
2000
03:26
I know that I'm going to live longer,
71
191000
3000
03:29
and I've even lost a little weight.
72
194000
3000
03:32
So, please ask yourselves,
73
197000
3000
03:35
for your health,
74
200000
2000
03:37
for your pocketbook,
75
202000
2000
03:39
for the environment, for the animals:
76
204000
3000
03:42
What's stopping you from giving weekday veg a shot?
77
207000
3000
03:45
After all, if all of us
78
210000
3000
03:48
ate half as much meat,
79
213000
2000
03:50
it would be like half of us
80
215000
2000
03:52
were vegetarians.
81
217000
2000
03:54
Thank you.
82
219000
2000
03:56
(Applause)
83
221000
2000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Graham Hill - JournalistGraham Hill is the founder of TreeHugger.com and LifeEdited; he travels the world to tell stories of sustainability and minimalism. He tweets at @GHill.
Why you should listen
Graham Hill is the founder of LifeEdited, dedicated to helping people design their lives for more happiness with less stuff. When he started the company in 2010, it brought the ideas of his previous project, the eco-blog and vlog TreeHugger.com, into design and architecture. (The TreeHugger team joined the Discovery Communications network as a part of their Planet Green initiative, and Hill now makes appearances on the green-oriented cable channel.)
Before Treehugger, Hill studied architecture and design (his side business is making those cool ceramic Greek coffee cups). His other company, ExceptionLab, is devoted to creating sustainable prototypes -- think lamps made from recycled blinds and ultra-mod planters that are also air filters.
Hill is the author of Weekday Vegetarian, available as a TED Book on Amazon and Apple's iBooks.
More profile about the speakerBefore Treehugger, Hill studied architecture and design (his side business is making those cool ceramic Greek coffee cups). His other company, ExceptionLab, is devoted to creating sustainable prototypes -- think lamps made from recycled blinds and ultra-mod planters that are also air filters.
Hill is the author of Weekday Vegetarian, available as a TED Book on Amazon and Apple's iBooks.
Graham Hill | Speaker | TED.com