A practical guide to eating less meat

The American diet is lopsided toward meat. Here’s how to incorporate more plant-based food into your life.

There’s more awareness than ever about the problems associated with industrial meat production, from its contribution to climate change and pollution to the abysmal treatment of animals and workers in meatpacking plants.

Yet many people find the idea of going vegetarian or full-on vegan to be difficult, even unimaginable. Only 5 percent of US adults are vegetarian or vegan, and most don’t stick with it — one study found 84 percent of vegetarians or vegans abandon their diet at some point.

At the same time, nearly a quarter of Americans say they are trying to cut back on meat.

We’re here to help.

Two years ago, Vox launched Meat/Less, a newsletter course to help our readers set achievable goals to reduce meat consumption and have an impact on climate change and animal welfare (and eat healthier, to boot). We got a ton of positive reader feedback, as well as suggestions on how we could improve, so we recently gave it a refresh with more recipes, cooking tips, and stories on how what we eat shapes the world.

Sign up and we’ll send you five newsletter emails — one per week — that’ll teach you how to easily incorporate more plant-based foods into your diet, give you evidence-based behavior strategies to make it last, and serve up plenty of food for thought on how our choices impact animals, our health, and the planet.

Want to get started? Sign up for Vox’s free Meat/Less newsletter course now.

The guide is written to help anyone on the less-meat spectrum, from aspiring flexitarians to full-on vegans. We’ll answer some of the most common questions about eating less meat:

• What impact can one person really make?
• If I am going to give up one type of meat, should I cut back on chicken or steak?
• Where do vegetarians get their protein?
• I’m terrible at making new habits stick … please help?

The newsletter, by Vox Future Perfect staff writer Kenny Torrella, gives readers the practical tools to eat less meat and more plant-based foods, like tips on what to cook, where to shop and eat, and how to be healthy on a plant-based diet. Kenny also answers big questions around the impact of eating less meat, like which types of meat have the biggest impacts on animals and the planet, and whether our individual food choices actually make a difference.

Since 2020, Vox has significantly increased our coverage of industrialized animal farming and its effects on animal welfare, public health, and the environment thanks to generous funders and readers, work that has ranged from a podcast miniseries to a video series to stories on Future Perfect.

We know our audience is looking for practical advice on how to live a better life in accordance with their values. We’re excited to be relaunching Meat/Less and look forward to hearing from readers about this course and what future ones we should offer.