Thanks for all the recent comments. I’m not back to eating meat all the time, but I have been eating more eggs than usual, and some salmon. Since the last time I wrote, I believe I’ve had salmon a couple times, and last night I had some chicken.
I’ve been sleeping like a log, which is the most blessed thing I can imagine right now. It’s so wonderful to go to bed and then wake up seven or eight hours later, and know that I slept well.
I haven’t made any decisions yet on What I Will Be. Here’s what I’m doing right now:
- Eating meat not very often, but when I do, buying it from the most responsible and ethical sources I can find.
- Avoiding processed foods and sugar as much as I can, to lower my triglycerides and LDL cholesterol, and because no matter where on the nutrition advice spectrum you look, eschewing this group of foods is basically universal.
- Reading as much about nutrition as I can stomach (haha), from different sources, ranging all the way from paleo diets to raw food, with vegan nutrition and even the American Heart Association diet thrown in.
That’s about it for now. I’ve started a huge outline of all my nutrition notes, which is a lot of fun because I’m a data geek, and I like to be able to find sources for things. So, for example, I read somewhere that green vegetables are a better source of amino acids than meat (Alissa Cohen), and I go digging for evidence of that (haven’t found it yet, still working – any articles you can find on that would be appreciated).
When I get enough information that I feel is backed up with enough science that I’m comfortable creating a dietary plan for myself, I’ll start down that path (whatever it may be) and see where it leads.
Thanks so much for all the wonderful comments and discussions! I’m so impressed with how everyone is both passionate and civil, and HELLO, if there’s going to be drinks later, you guys better invite me too.
I’ve been thinking a lot about my assumptions about food, and especially my assumptions as someone who has read 60+ books on vegetarianism and factory farming, and not much about an other related agricultural topic.
These are things I believe to be true:
- Factory farms treat animals abhorrently in a variety of ways, including (but not limited to): being unable to live their lives naturally expressing their own instincts and behaviors healthfully, cruel handling of the “healthy” animals but also exceptionally cruel handling of the fallen, an unnatural diet that often makes them sick, and a death that is at least terrifying, if not drawn out and downright torturous.
- Factory farms are horrible for the environment as a whole, but especially damaging to their own regional ecology, causing sickness in surrounding communities, and polluting local soils and waterways.
(Seafood – a connected topic that I have thoughts about, but I’d like to concentrate right now on the farm animal industry and talk about seafood at a different time.)
Those are the 2 main reasons I’ve wanted to go vegetarian for so many years. Because I believe it’s possible, and because I believe it’s morally wrong to support an industry that causes so much needless suffering and environmental degradation.
Based on this, it’s clear that the values I feel strongly about here are:
- Diminishing suffering.
- Diminishing environmental impact as much as I can.
So, based on my education, and combined with my values, what are my assumptions?
- Eating a vegetarian diet will keep animals from suffering.
- Eating a vegetarian diet will keep me just as healthy as eating meat would have.
- Eating a vegetarian diet will be a net positive for the earth because it has less environmental impact than eating factory farmed meat does.
- It’s very possible for a significant portion (like, say, around 90%) of the human population to live quite healthfully and happily without eating meat, it’s “just” a matter of changing tastes, habits, and transitioning from one cultural norm to another.
These are assumptions I don’t regularly question, but am starting to now. Specifically:
- What is the environmental impact of industrial agriculture? What are the costs and benefits? Who are the big players, what’s being done to the land, how is it being done?
- I know where my beef comes from (literally I do – the name and address of the farm), but where does my brown rice come from? Where do my barley and soybeans come from? Why isn’t this question just as deserving of scrutiny as the source of any meat I might want to eat?
- What is the environmental impact of animal-based agriculture where factory farms don’t exist, where animals are raised in the open, where the impact to the land is minimized?
You might be asking why I’m not questioning whether we should animals at all. I’ll write about that more later, too, but that would be a pretty huge post and I want to think about my feelings on that more. I wanted to get this stuff down while it’s fresh.
I posted about chicken soup
by hollie on 02/24/2010
in Deep and Meaningful Commentary
I wanted to see what it felt like to post over at my personal blog, so I did. It’s here.
It felt good to post there, and while I really dislike the idea of letting go of this place, I also relish the idea of putting all the parts of my life in one place. I haven’t decided what I’m doing yet, but I’m sure I’ll post more about food over there in the interim, so feel free to add that blog to your reader.
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