If I told you that you could save enough water to provide four years of fresh drinking water to Canadians and save about 3 billion lbs of greenhouse gas emissions from warming up our planet every year only by replacing one type of food on your plate – would you make the switch? (1)

You can make this impact today by choosing Beyond Meat over a traditional meat-based burger.

What is Beyond Meat?

The Beyond Meat burger is made of 100% plant-based ingredients that replicates the mouth-watering taste of a beef burger. The creators of the burger had meat-lovers in mind so the choice to eat more sustainably could be something that anyone could find yummy, rather than being a choice that required giving up something you love to eat.

What makes Beyond Meat different from other vegan burgers out there? It comes down to three main reasons: taste, ingredients, and sustainability.

• Taste: The Beyond Meat burger’s unique meat-like taste can be credited to the use of beet juice. This component to the burger gives it the juicy texture as it “bleeds” this vegetable juice. This characteristic breaks the commonly stated opinion that veggie burgers tend to be dry.
• Ingredients: Another common critique of veggie burgers is that even though they are plant-based, the ingredients still aren’t very good for you. What makes the Beyond Meat burger different is that it is primarily made of peas! Compared to a beef burger, this vegan burger packs in more protein and iron, and less saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories. What’s not to love?
• Sustainability: Overall all plant-based burgers are always going to be more sustainable than meat-based burgers (more on that later), but Beyond Meat burgers take it a step farther. All Beyond Meat burgers are made from non-GMO ingredients which is good for people and planet.

The Environmental Impact

We all try to do our part to live more sustainably, such as by using less single-use products, but when you’re trying to find a way to reuse a chip bag and you hear that this year was the hottest year on record for the fourth time in a row, we all wonder – how can I make a bigger impact?

The environmental benefit of Beyond Meat is significant when compared to the eco-footprint of beef, but its impact is worth comparing to other sustainability-focused lifestyle choices to see how awesome it really is. So, let’s go through a few:

• Packaging: Plastic has been a hot topic this year as we’ve learned more about microplastics (tiny bits of plastic that are almost impossible to see) ending up in everything from our soil to the fish we eat (2). But in relation to the food that plastic packaging is containing, it only makes up a very small percentage of the overall eco-footprint. Eighty percent of a product’s environmental footprint is due to how the food was grown and how it was transported (3). Beyond Meat burgers use 46% less energy and require 93% less land than beef burgers!
• Water: If you are a tree hugger like me, you try to save water where you can, such as by taking shorter showers. If you are able to cut your shower time by two minutes, you can save roughly 40 litres of water (4).  In comparison, if you switch your beef burger for a Beyond Meat burger, you save about 215 litres of water (5). That’s more than quadruple the amount of water saved!
• Transportation: Eating locally can make a major difference in cutting down the amount of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) of your food by shrinking the distance your food travels from field to fork. However, how your food is made actually has a much bigger impact on GHGE. Research shows that solely reducing red meat and dairy in your home will save more GHGE than eating an entirely local diet for a year (6). In relation to Beyond Meat, these veggie burgers produce 90% less GHG emissions than beef!

It Starts with You

Everything we do in an effort to live more sustainably is valuable, but to change the world, being informed of how we as individuals can make a greater impact is equally important.

At Blush Lane and SPUD, we recognize that one of the biggest changes we can make in our lifestyle to tackle climate change is by reducing our consumption of beef. We want to make this choice accessible and tasteful to our customers which is why we are bringing in the New Year by showing off a variety of Beyond Meat products that we carry.

Shop in store or at SPUD.ca to get your Beyond Meat favourites or to try it out for the first time! If you are new to SPUD, use the promo code BEYOND to get these burgers for free with your first order!

Sources

1. Beyond meat. https://www.beyondmeat.com/products/view/beyond-burger
2. Plastic Planet: how tiny plastic particles are polluting our soil. https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/plastic-planet-how-tiny-plastic-particles-are-polluting-our-soil
3.  Left Coast Naturals. https://www.leftcoastnaturals.com/sustainability/our-planet/
4. http://www.bu.edu/sustainability/what-you-can-do/ten-sustainable-actions/take-shorter-showers/
5. Heller, Martin and Gregory Keoleian. Beyond Meat ‘s Beyond Burger Life Cycle Assessment: A Detailed Comparison Between A Plant-Based And Animal-Based Protein Source. http://css.umich.edu/publication/beyond-meats-beyond-burger-life-cycle-assessment-detailed-comparison-between-plant-based
6.  Katz, Josh and Jennifer Daniel.What You Can Do About Climate Change. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/12/03/upshot/what-you-can-do-about-climate-change.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR36egMwauzsHLFvdDKRAIggyVCuZoOKlx0yB5BKW6igjJaWQbtUO6Xq1FI