The estimates are calcuated using a free on-line carbon calculator. The anticipated meat consumption from the various plans was entered in to the on-line calculator and calculated for 40 days. This number was subtracted from the average meat consumption of an American for 40 days. An assumption is made that the person fasting chooses to eat the most meat and the most problematic meat (beef) as often as the fasting level allows; therefore, the estimates of CO2e savings are conservative, i.e. the savings are on the low side.

CO₂e means carbon dioxide equivalent. There are different types of greenhouse gasses. For example, methane, produced by cows, isn't carbon dioxide, but it can be expressed as a carbon dioxide equivalent allowing comparisons between different gasses that cause warming. Therefore, CO₂e is a standard measure, just like inches is a measure for length or PSI is a measure for pressure.

You can easily get enough protein on a plant-based diet, although our community Lenten Fast is not vegetarian. Some famous vegetarian athletes are vegetarians, such as Martina Navratilova (tennis pro), Venus Williams (tennis pro) and James Jones (Detroit Pistons). There are lists of football players, bodybuilders, boxers, ultra-marathon runners, etc. who are vegetarians. Protein needs of adults range from 46 grams (teenage girls) to 56 grams (adult men). Children need less protein and pregnant or breast-feeding women need more. There was a very large NIH (National Institutes of Health) study that answers this question. Looking at Figure 1 in the paper, the average dietary protein intake was over 70 grams of protein, regardless if the people were meat-eaters or vegetarians or semi-vegetarians. In the US, eating sufficient protein, regardless of whether you eat meat or not, doesn't appear to be a problem. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23988511

If you want to drop out during Lent, please send an email to rosemary.herhold@greenerlent.org. It is no problem at all, and thank you for helping keep the calculations accurate. If you want to change your fasting level, simply sign up again under a new fasting level. Your old level will be dropped from the calculations.

Generally, replacing meat with fruits, beans, vegetables and whole grains helps control weight, cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer. However, if meat is replaced by highly processed food, cheese, eggs, refined white flour and desserts, there won't be a positive health impact. Fasting from meat can be very healthy and may result in gradual weight loss if other poor eating habits are controlled. Although fasting from meat can offer incredible potential health benefits and may be a reason to adopt a plant-based lifestyle, our Lenten Fast is focused on fasting as a means of repentence and considering the poor in our eating decisions. Nonetheless, the research of Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a nutritional biochemist from Cornell University, and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, a former top surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, are featured in a documentary that does a fantastic job of explaining the health benefits of a plant-based diet.

Seafood has a smaller carbon footprint than other animal meat, on average, generally because it doesn't take land or other resources to feed it. However, seafood has a varied impact, with crustaceans, like lobsters, being the worst, and smaller fish being the best. This is basically due to the amount of fuel energy it takes to obtain the different types of seafood. Therefore, fish is excluded from the fast. Cheese and eggs are also excluded even though they have a higher carbon impact than fish; in fact, the carbon impact of cheese mirrors meat. However, people generally don't eat as many pounds of cheese as meat. BTW, if you want to lower your carbon impact, stick with soft cheese, such as mozzarella, feta, brie or camembert. The environmental impact of an egg is somewhat like that of a chicken, but it depends on many factors regarding how they were produced. Going down all of these "rabbit holes" made the Lenten FAST unncessarily complicated. So, fish, eggs and cheese are excluded, but don't overdo the cheese.

Absolutely! There is a spot on the form to capture a parish or an individual without a parish affiliation.