At 15 I turned strict vegetarian (for yoga) and had to cook for myself as my father "refused to make two meals." So I began to read and learn about nutrition. I started with the Veggie's Bible: Diet for a Small Planet. I learned about protein complementarity. I learned we eat so much meat in this country as a way to get rid of the huge surplus of corn and grain we developed after WWII with the introduction of nitrogen (petrochemical based) fertilizers. It takes 7 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of beef. A great food sink - a way to solve the over abundance. Prior to 1945 Americans did not eat red meat more than a couple times a week, unless very wealthy.
I have had times when I did eat meat- as part of an inner transformation I did eat meat for a while.
But, I stopped eating turkey right after having a personal encounter with a wild turkey (the bird, not the bourbon).
And since then when I see live fish or crabs at the market the image comes back and I simply cannot bring myself to eat them. I saw pictures of pig gestation pens, what is done to baby calves and how animals are slaughtered (see below). I feel connection to other living things and do not wish to bring extra harm to my fellow animals. and I am not OK asking someone else to do that which I cannot bring myself to do.
I've read recently that plants may be sending signals to each other, indicating possible consciousness, but I have to draw the line somewhere. I'm not a breatharian (people who live on light and air).
So now I am back to being a vegetarian. Eggs, OK, in moderation. And then they are organic, free range…Maybe a clam, mussel or scallop now and then. A shrimp here or there. But very infrequently. I don't do it out of convenience or make the decision lightly.
A few years ago I watched the movie Food, Inc. I knew about industrialized farming and had driven past miles and miles and miles of abused, gross cattle land (piles and piles of manure which liquify after rains and runoff into rivers and streams further polluting our water). The movie made quite an impression.
Interestingly, one is not allowed to film inside commercial slaughterhouses. Some video was shot secretly and the images are raw, to say the least.
What struck me, besides the inhumanity of how the cattle are processed (they can hear the sounds and screams of fellow cattle being killed. This stress releases extra hormones into their bodies which humans eat and causes all manner of side-effects, higher aggression being one of them, but I digress) is what happens to the low-paid, typically migrant, 'unskilled' workers who do the butchering. They loose fingers, hands, are maimed and get minimal health coverage. Many are illegal aliens, most are simply poor, uneducated or this is all they can do to feed their families.
And it struck me:
Disposable food.
Disposable people.
Food is 'engineered' in laboratories for 'mouth-feel' - deliberately created with high levels of sugar-salt-fat to directly stimulate the pleasure centers in the brain to make us want more, yet actual nutritional quality is low. So therefore we need more. Artificially flavored and colored.
Did you know that if you ate better quality food, you would actually need less of it?
Our topsoil is all but gone. 97% of our food is grown in sand using petrochemical based fertilizers. We have to use harsher and harsher pesticides as the plants have less and less naturally occurring resistance to disease and pests. And our yields are diminishing. So we have to increase our production as yields decrease, costing us more.
We are the first organism on the planet to create food at will. This was made possible by plentiful, cheap oil. What happens when oil begins to run out?
How aware are you of:
How much food do you consume each day?
Where it comes from, how it was produced?
What chemicals, additives are used?
The effects of these chemicals on your body?
Did you know corn is grown below cost using US subsidies (your taxes) - and so corn syrup and high fructose syrup are in almost everything.
Have you ever eaten something you have grown yourself? I learned to be an organic farmer a couple years ago and the difference is amazing. Eating something I grow in my own garden tastes better and is arguably healthier for me and changes my relationship to that which keeps me alive. I live in a condo now, but still manage to grow vegetables and herbs in pots on the balcony.
Seems to me People and Food and Education and Life-style were designed to serve the industrial engines of the industrial age. Consumer-based-Cogs in a machine. Replaceable, disposable and cheap. And my internal transformation is now expanding into an outer transformation. Part of that is an expanding awareness of food, my relation to it and desire to simplify.
I read the labels of my food closely.
I buy organic, not just for food quality, but it's the price I pay for rebuilding our topsoil.
I support Community Sourced Agriculture. Get most of my food at farmers markets or organic markets that support local gorwers. Or grow it myself.
Lastly, I don't eat anything (e.g. ingredients) my grandmother would not recognize as food*.
To quote Michael Pollan: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
*Note: I'm human and make occasional exceptions, and sometimes simply cannot know.
I am making a larger point.
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