After attending Dr. Vecchione’s training (see my previous blog), I started to do some reading. I started with Diet for a New America, and have moved from there to Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Plant, Miracle, and I’m currently reading Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma.
It seems to me that our current modern life is highly toxic—more than any of us know, or are inclined to find out about. Our air and water are polluted; our food is reconstructed bits of nutrients that have been shipped halfway around the world; we are increasingly sedentary creatures who are suffering the effects of over nutrition, such as diabetes; the list goes on and on.
Having such a list makes it seem as though all of those issues are separate, but in reality they are not. It’s difficult to imagine our global ecosystem when we buy our food in a well-lit isle of our grocery store, but in reality all of our food is still (mostly) derived from some natural source, even the final processed result is many steps away from the original food source, and is a different food source than is actually advertised on the package (corn is in everything).
The way that we are currently choosing to buy our food is contributing to the sickness of our food in ways that are widespread and impact almost every system on earth. For instance, CAFO’s (Commercial Agriculture Feedlot Organizations) are where most of our animal-based protein sources are “raised”. These animals are subjected to unnatural living situations for most of their lives, and create pollution for the immediate and surrounding ecosystems that house these animal cities.
CAFO cattle are fattened on a mixture of corn (which their stomachs cannot tolerate, although new breeds are being developed that will allow their stomachs to deal with the grain for as long as they’d need to—which is, of course, only until slaughter), soybeans, and fat; sometimes beef tallow. This mixture is ground into a paste three times a day to fatten the creatures at an unnaturally fast rate, so that the companies can maximize their profits. All of this feeding creates a huge amount of waste, which on a farm of yesterday would be used for fertilizing the plant crops, which is actually toxic because of the hormones and antibiotics that are in them. This sits in manure pits that the animals are forced to interact with on a daily basis. When slaughtered, the animals are usually covered in their own waste, which inevitably makes it’s way into our food supply. Similar, and worse, conditions exist for chickens, pigs, lambs, turkeys, and all of the other animals that we consume.
Our national desire for all types of food, all year ‘round, has contributed to the global oil crisis. At any point of the year in Vermont, you can purchase oranges, bananas, pineapples, mangos, star fruit, apricots…the list goes on. These foods have their origins in a vastly different climates. These foods are harvested before their prime and hauled for thousands of miles so that they can be put into plastic based containers and then put into plastic bags and driven to your home, consuming even more oil. The banana that I just finished eating, although organic, has a huge carbon footprint.
Our collective greed and impatience has created problems that are huge, vast, and quickly overtaking our lives. It is for these reasons, and many others, that I have become (again) a vegetarian, with the intent to be a (mostly) localvore-vegetarian starting this summer. I have been meat free for a few weeks now, and with the help of soy products for when I have a craving for bacon (my favorite meat product), I am making a fairly seamless transition. I enjoy knowing that I, by eliminating an unnecessary protein source from my diet, I am not taking part in the atrocities that occur in the CAFO’s. When I start on the localvore part of my diet this summer, I will reduce my carbon footprint by a ton!
What I find interesting are the reactions that I have gotten for this choice that I’ve made. Some people express their sympathy; some people give me disdainful looks; some people ask questions; some people feel that meat is an absolute necessity for a healthy lifestyle. Vegetarianism seems to be an affront to some people. It’s interesting, since a vegetarian lifestyle, by eating lower on the food chain, is healthier for the people and the planet. I’m not sure why that would piss people off!
I certainly don’t want to tell people what to do; vegetarianism and local-eating is simply what I feel is right. However, something has to be done, by every person on this planet, or else we might desire ourselves into a (really big and stinky) grave. Please read, please educate, please make a change.
http://www.peta.org/
http://www.reusablebags.com/
