At the beginning of this year, January 1st in fact, I went meatless. This was not due to wanting to save animal lives, or lose weight (in fact I think all the cheese has added to the old waistline). Really, I wanted to do more to preserve the environment. Composting just wasn't cutting it for me anymore.
The truth is, I'm an Oregon girl at heart. And Oregon people are full-on tree hugging, trail hiking, scat identifying, one with the Earth types. Full-on. And so it just became too difficult to justify my frozen chicken breast consuming ways.
Not only that, but after reading Julia Child's My Life in France and all of her wonderful descriptions of chickeny-chickens I realized that I'd never in my life had fresh chicken, and that wasn't going to change anytime soon due to what's available in my local grocery stores. Julia's fervent appreciation of food got me to pay more attention to what I was stuffing in my own mouth. And the reality is, flash-frozen chicken breast tastes like crap. So does the vast majority of grocery store meat. I don't like to eat food that tastes like crap. So I don't.
That is not to say I will not eat meat ever or that I'm above cheating. You can call me a meat cheat if you want as my will-power is sometimes too weak to resist a SPAM musubi. If I can get my hands on some locally caught fish, the best is from the guy who sells it on the road-side, I'm totally game.
See what I'm getting at here? I'm just trying to do my part for the environment.
Not convinced or not ready to give up meat? There are so many other ways you can do your part:
-Write your own post about food.
-Get inspired. Get informed.
-Boycott high fructose corn syrup.
-Plant something. Anything.
-Compost your food scraps.
-Feed a kid in need.
-Buy and eat local.
-Try not to waste food.
This rant is done! Thanks for reading.
I gave up meat, dairy, and eggs for the same reason! It's not that I won't ever eat them again, it's that I want to eat them responsibly. I view it like anything else I do to help the environment - I'll do it whenever I can. The fact that I am in better shape and feel better than ever is a nice side effect too. : )
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Sarah
Interesting. I have gone vegetarian twice in my life. Although I would really like to continue, I can't due to my anemia. My iron is extremely low, even with taking folic acid and other pre-natal type vitamins. Each time I went meatless, I would end up passing out randomly. It was not good. I wish I could though. In my heart, I am meatless.
ReplyDeleteI love a good tirade! I often consider giving multiple rants a day. That can't be healthy can it? Our family does pretty much everything on your list. We're almost meatless but not quite. It doesn't matter if someone believes in global warming or not. The fact that there is a finite number of resources on this planet and we have an impact on them, should be something that everyone should consider in their day to day living.
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