Want to help the environment and yourself at the same time? Eat less meat.

People should have one meat-free day a week if they want to make a personal and effective sacrifice that would help tackle climate change, the world’s leading authority on global warming has told The Observer.

Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which last year earned a joint share of the Nobel Peace Prize, said that people should then go on to reduce their meat consumption even further.

And if you live in the US you should be more wary of American meat than ever considering how the US meat processors are driven by profit rather than placing human health at the highest priority. When mad cow disease was first discovered in US beef you’d think the US government would require all beef producers to test for mad cow disease. Instead, according to Creekstone Farms, a Kansas beef producer, the USDA won’t let Creekstone test all their cows.

When a vertebral column was detected in a veal shipment to Japan, Japan reinstated their ban on US beef imports. Sadly, Japan has suspended that ban and allowed American meat back in. Michiko Kamiyama from Food Safety Citizen Watch said about this: “The government has put priority on the political schedule between the two countries, not on food safety or human health.”.

When profit drives one’s work, you can look forward to more unsafe choices aimed at keeping the money flowing toward a business. It’s a matter of priorities. So isn’t your priority to enrich business even at risk to your health? Apparently that’s their view of you.