Why I'm a weekday vegetarian | Graham Hill

Translator: Christo Crafford Reviewer: Ingrid Lezar

About a year ago,

Ongeveer ’n jaar gelede,

I asked myself a question:

het ek myself gevra:

"Knowing what I know,

"Inaggenome wat ek weet,

why am I not a vegetarian?"

hoekom is ek nie ’n vegetariër nie?"

After all, I'm one of the green guys:

Ek is immers een van die groen ouens.

I grew up with hippie parents in a log cabin.

Ek het in ’n houthut met hippie ouers grootgeword.

I started a site called TreeHugger --

Ek't ’n webtuiste genaamd Treehugger begin --

I care about this stuff.

ek gee om oor hierdie goed.

I knew that eating a mere hamburger a day

Ek weet dat ’n enkele hamburger per dag

can increase my risk of dying by a third.

my sterfrisiko met ’n derde kan vermeerder.

Cruelty: I knew that the 10 billion

Wreedheid: ek weet dat die 10 miljard

animals we raise each year for meat

diere wat ons elke jaar vir vleis teel,

are raised in factory farm conditions

onder fabrieksomstandighede grootgemaak word

that we, hypocritically, wouldn't even consider

wat ons, hipokrities genoeg, nooit sou oorweeg

for our own cats, dogs and other pets.

vir ons eie katte, honde en ander troeteldiere nie.

Environmentally, meat, amazingly,

Uit ’n omgewingsoogpunt veroorsaak vleis,

verbasend genoeg, meer uitlaatgasse

causes more emissions

than all of transportation combined:

as alle vervoer saam,

cars, trains, planes, buses, boats, all of it.

motors, treine, vliegtuie, busse, bote, alles saam.

And beef production uses 100 times the water

Beesvleis produksie gebruik 100 keer meer water

that most vegetables do.

as wat meeste groente vereis.

I also knew that I'm not alone.

Ek het ook geweet ek is nie alleen nie.

We as a society

As ’n samelewing

are eating twice as much meat

eet ons twee maal soveel vleis

as we did in the 50s.

as wat ons het in die 1950’s.

So what was once the special little side treat

Wat op ’n tyd die klein, spesiale bykos was,

now is the main, much more regular.

is nou die hoofmaal en baie meer gereeld.

So really, any of these angles

So eintlik behoort enige van dié aspekte

should have been enough to convince me to go vegetarian.

genoeg te wees om vegetaries te word.

Yet, there I was -- chk, chk, chk --

En tog was ek -- tjk, tjk, tjk --

tucking into a big old steak.

aan't smul aan ’n lekker groot steak.

So why was I stalling?

So waarom het ek gedraal?

I realized that what I was being pitched

Ek't besef dat die opsie wat aan my gestel is

was a binary solution.

'n binêre oplossing is.

It was either

Jy is óf 'n vleiseter,

you're a meat eater or you're a vegetarian,

óf 'n vegetariër.

and I guess I just wasn't quite ready.

En ek was seker net nie heeltemal gereed nie.

Imagine your last hamburger.

Stel jou voor: jou laaste hamburger.

(Laughter)

(Gelag)

So my common sense,

So my logika,

my good intentions,

my goeie bedoelings,

were in conflict with my taste buds.

was in konflik met my smaaksintuig.

And I'd commit to doing it later,

Ek sou besluit om dit later te doen.

and not surprisingly, later never came.

En snaaks genoeg, het later nooit gekom nie.

Sound familiar?

Klink dit bekend?

So I wondered,

Ek wonder toe,

might there be a third solution?

is daar dalk ’n derde oplossing?

And I thought about it, and I came up with one.

Ek't daaroor gedink en met een voorendag gekom.

I've been doing it for the last year, and it's great.

Ek doen dit al die afgelope jaar, en dis fantasties.

It's called weekday veg.

Ek noem dit: weeksdag-groentjie.

The name says it all:

Die naam sê alles.

Nothing with a face Monday through Friday.

Niks met ’n gesig nie, Maandag tot Vrydag.

On the weekend, your choice.

Oor die naweek, jou keuse.

Simple.

Eenvoudig.

If you want to take it to the next level,

Sou jy dit verder wou vat,

remember, the major culprits

onthou die hoof sondebokke,

in terms of environmental damage and health

in terme van omgewingskade en gesondheid,

are red and processed meats.

is rooi- en verwerkte vleis.

So you want to swap those out

So jy kan dit uitruil

with some good, sustainably harvested fish.

met goeie, volhoubare vis.

It's structured,

Dis gestruktureerd,

so it ends up being simple to remember,

so dis maklik om te onthou.

and it's okay to break it here and there.

En dis aanvaarbaar om nou en dan af te wyk.

After all, cutting five days a week

Vyf dae ’n week sny immers

is cutting 70 percent of your meat intake.

jou vleisverbruik met 70 persent.

The program has been great, weekday veg.

Weeksdag-groentjie het goed gewerk sover.

My footprint's smaller,

My impak is kleiner,

I'm lessening pollution,

ek verminder besoedeling.

I feel better about the animals,

Ek voel beter oor die diere.

I'm even saving money.

Ek spaar selfs geld.

Best of all, I'm healthier,

Beste van alles: ek's gesonder,

I know that I'm going to live longer,

ek weet ek gaan langer leef,

and I've even lost a little weight.

en ek't selfs ’n bietjie gewig verloor.

So, please ask yourselves,

Vra jouself dus asseblief af,

for your health,

vir jou gesondheid,

for your pocketbook,

vir jou beursie,

for the environment, for the animals:

vir die omgewing, vir die diere:

What's stopping you from giving weekday veg a shot?

Wat verhoed jou om weeksdag-groentjie uit te probeer?

After all, if all of us

As ons almal

ate half as much meat,

helfte soveel vleis geëet het

it would be like half of us

sou dit wees asof die helfte van ons

were vegetarians.

vegetariërs was.

Thank you.

Dankie.

(Applause)

(Applous)