I see my diet as an environmental and political issue. Not just including food, whenever I buy anything, I vote with my dollars. If a company is irresponsible with pesticides, pollutants, or other practices - I vote for that if I buy their products. In the case of food, that means I don't only vote for it, but I ingest it.
I finally made the choice to go vegetarian about 6 mos ago. Strangely enough, I have Bill Frist to thank. Here's my story.
I won't pretend it was a difficult choice to go vegetarian. I am no carnivore. Sometimes I liked chicken or turkey. I loved sashimi. Duck and lamb were also high up on my list. And in a tapas bar in Naperville, IL, they make the best tapas dish called Monteditos de Cerdo made with pork medallions sitting atop a bed of carmalized onions on small pieces of bread. I have also eaten: jellyfish, sea cucumber, ram testicles, gator, rabbit, and dog. But other than that - I ate tofu because I liked it, and I was usually too lazy to cook meat at home so I didn't bother. Life Without Meat isn't difficult for me.
Back in college, I remember some of the literature handed out by the campus vegan association. I thought it was total bullpucky (as Rachel Maddow would say). I told myself I would never go vegetarian without a well-founded reason. My suspician was that many vegetarian, vegan, or animal rights websites were VERY biased. And to be honest, I'm just not that sorry if an animal dies so I can eat it.
One by one I found reasons to give up various types of meat, eggs, and dairy until I was so picky I was a bad dinner guest. Finally, I adopted the label - "Vegetarian" - and I promise I will tell you what Bill Frist has to do with it.
Beef: It's What's NOT For Dinner
Over the summer of 2002, I lived with a British family in south London. I ate beef if my host mum cooked it, to be polite. I did not growing up eating much beef but I had never thought of giving it up. By the end of the summer, I was so sick of mad cow references at the dinner table, I was done. I was sick of dealing with weighing my odds every time the topic came up - even though I am usually a little more immune to fearmongering. In truth, I never really liked beef and I grew up hearing that I should avoid eating too much red meat. No more beef.
Milk 'n Eggs
After I got my current job (about 2 years ago), I was finally able to afford organic eggs and dairy products. I made the choice because of a book I read back in college, and I can't remember which one. It was about politics, it was written by someone like Michael Moore or Greg Palast, and it was liberal.
I've read recently that some organic dairy brands - such as Dean's organic line, Horizon - do basically the bare minimum for their organic certification, so you may not be getting what you think you are. I read it from the Organic Consumers Association.
Organic consumers assume that when they're buying "USDA Organic" milk or dairy products, that the animals have access to pasture, and have been raised organically for their entire lives on sustainably-sized farms. Unfortunately, as the Cornucopia Institute has pointed out, companies like Dean Foods (Horizon) and Aurora have become leaders in the organic dairy sector by producing cheap milk on factory farm feedlots, feeding the cows organic grains, but providing no access to pasture, as organic standards require. The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) has pleaded with the USDA for four years to clarify federal regulations requiring pasture access and to put an end to factory farm dairy feedlots calling themselves organic. Unfortunately USDA, no doubt under pressure from "industrial organic" lobbyists, has failed to act. In addition loopholes in federal organic standards are allowing unscrupulous organic dairy operators to increase their herd size by importing young calves from conventional farms, where the animals are routinely weaned on cattle blood, injected or medicated with antibiotics, and fed genetically engineered grains, laced with slaughterhouse waste and tainted animal fat.
If this pisses you off, call the US Department of Agriculture a call at 202-720-3631 and ask them to stop allowing factory dairy farms to use the "USDA Organic" Label.
Is that Alaskan or Atlantic?
About a year ago, I became aware of the issue of "eco-friendly fish." Maybe I'm behind the times. I probably heard about it from Bobby Kennedy, Jr. on Ring of Fire. Environmental Working Group has a good website about this. My reference of choice is the Seafood Selector provided by Environmental Defense.
I started asking at restaurants whether salmon was Atlantic or Alaskan, which resulted in laughter and teasing from my coworkers. Atlantic salmon is typically farmed. That's the one you don't want. You do want wild Alaskan salmon. You can occasionally find this at restaurants (such as one of my favorites, Terra, in San Diego) and when they have it, they often tell you it's Alaskan on the menu. If and when I now cave on vegetarianism, it is for a rare treat of some wild Alaskan salmon.
Vast Lagoons of Pig Feces
That is Al Franken's title of a chapter in his book, Lying Liars. He discusses an issue that I heard first from Bobby Kennedy, Jr. on Air America (hear it here). The long story short is that there is a way to treat waste properly - we use it for our own shit. And a pig produces much more shit than your average human. But corporate hog farms are not required to deal with pig shit properly. They use something called the lagoon method (it is what it sounds like), which eventually breeds bacteria that gets into and pollutes rivers and kills fish. This is a major problem in N. Carolina. It is a political issue more than anything else, but until our Democrats find their spines, I decided to quietly dissent by avoiding pork.
Toying With Vegan Baking
As I bake a lot, I was fascinated by the idea that someone could manage to make a cookie without eggs. Turns out vegan baking is possible, easy, and very tasty. I started experimenting with it last winter, although I am not a vegan. I was trying to get more soy into my diet at the time. There are some delicious Caribbean recipes here (they all contain soy but only some are vegan). Another favorite vegan recipe site is The Post Punk Kitchen. My favorite recipe to date is for gingersnaps.
If you are someone who could never give up meat, but you want to do something good for the environment, consider vegan baking. You'll never miss the eggs & dairy, and you still get your cookies and cakes same as ever.
Bill Frist (Cat Killer) Enters the Picture
By this time, I was a horrible dinner guest. Yes I eat meat, but not this, not that, organic this, and only certain species of that. Yeah right. Add to that the fact that I go out for frequent dinners for my job and it's typically best to be seen as likable by your customers.
Then, one day, I had my cat in my lap and I heard (not for the first time) on the radio about Bill Frist vivisecting cats. I started surfing the internet and came upon the American Anti-Vivisection Society. Here is what I read that made me finally commit:
Environmental Impact
The land, the water, and the air are being devastated by the over-use of natural resources in the massive production of animals used for food.
- Twenty vegetarians can be fed on the amount of land needed to feed one person consuming a meat-based diet.
- More than half of all the water used in the United States is used in livestock production.
- A University of California study shows that it takes 25 gallons of water to produce one pound of wheat; it takes 2,500 gallons to produce one pound of meat.
- Tropical rainforests in Latin America are being destroyed in order to support the demand for meat in the United States.
- Nearly 3 trillion pounds of solid animal waste is produced each year which equals five tons of fecal animal waste for each person in the U.S. Nationwide, 130 times more animal manure is produced than human waste.
- Animal waste carries parasites, bacteria, and viruses and can pollute drinking water with high levels of nitrates, which are potentially fatal to infants and harmful to all.
- Runoff from animal waste often winds up in lakes, oceans, and streams, accounting for more water pollution than all other human activities combined, including industry and municipal sewers. Millions of fish and other aquatic species have been killed as a result.
Factory Farming
In the U.S. alone, over 8.6 billion animals are slaughtered each year for human consumption. They are slaughtered in high speed production-line fashion as if they are inanimate objects.
- Regulations requiring `humane' slaughter are rarely enforced, and birds (who represent more than 85% of animals killed for food) are not included in these regulations. Animals are often cut, skinned, scalded, and/or drowned while still alive.
- Cows are forced to produce 10 times the milk they would naturally generate to feed their calves. The vast majority of U.S. cows suffer from mastitis and other diseases of the udder. Once their production level drops (usually around the age of five), the cows are slaughtered for low-grade beef.
- Male calves, a lucrative "by-product" of the dairy industry, are raised in solitary confinement for veal. Most are taken from their mothers just 24 hours after birth. For 16 weeks, calves are chained by the neck while isolated and held in small crates. To keep their flesh pale, calves are fed iron-deficient diets.
- Restrained in stalls barely bigger than their bodies, sows are continually impregnated and forced to produce piglets in intensive confinement. Living in their own excrement on concrete floors, pigs often suffer from pneumonia and lung damage and constant foot and ankle pain. Boars are routinely castrated without pain killers or anesthesia.
- Egg-laying hens are crammed inside wire cages so tightly they cannot stretch a wing. They are `de-beaked' with a hot blade, and are likely to suffer from a number of health problems. After a year of laying eggs, hens are slaughtered for their meat. In the breeding of laying hens, any males born (more than 200 million a year) are discarded on-site, which usually means dumping them into a trashbag to suffocate them or grinding them into feed.
- Due to the overfishing of sea animals to dangerously low population levels, aquatic animals are now `raised' on factory farms where millions of them are crowded into concrete pools. Bacteria, parasites, chemicals, and waste run off into waterways infecting people, animals, and the entire ecosystem.
- Food industry experiments are a booming business in the U.S. Solely to increase profits. Animals are genetically altered to grow bigger and faster to unnatural proportions, causing extreme discomfort and suffering. Often, animals' bodies are unable to physically support their artificially overgrown muscles--the parts people eat.
- Since farmed animals are excluded from the Animal Welfare Act and state anti-cruelty laws, it is often considered more cost effective for a farmer to let a suffering animal die than to medically treat her/him.
I ended my omnivorous life with a meat binge all over Europe last May. I've had Alaskan salmon a handful of times since then, but no other meat. I told my mother I would eat the Thanksgiving turkey if she buys organic. Today I was reading a description of a dairy farm in my home state of Wisconsin in the book Spanking the Donkey: Dispatches from the Dumb Season by Matt Taibbi (a book EVERY liberal should read!) and it made me rethink the dairy I eat. I decided I can switch my morning bagel to peanut butter instead of cream cheese, and I can start making pumpkin pie with soy milk (I make about 1 pumpkin pie a week)... but I'm not granola enough to give up the milk in my lattes as of yet.
I cut myself shaving this week and the blood clotted, so I suppose I am not destroying my health. I was tested for mercury and my result was .46, within the safe range. So far so good. If you are worried about the health impacts of going veggie, here is what I do to stay healthy:
Health Without Meat
- Vitamin B12 - You get this from animal products, and you need it. You may also find it in supplements or fortified products such as soy milk.
- Complete Proteins - You can get complete proteins by eating complimentary foods such as whole grains and legumes (such as rice and beans) or by eating soy. I like to make a burrito with refried black beans, a whole wheat tortilla, tomato, and avocado. I got a pressure cooker for my birthday last week so now my choices here will be expanded.
- Many Colors of Veggies - Whether you are a vegetarian or not, you should eat a variety of colors of vegetables. I get my Orange in the form of reduced sugar pumpkin pie (reduce it to 1/4 to 1/3 c. grade B maple syrup and you won't miss it). Green is often asparagus or brussel sprouts - either nuked or oven roasted. Red is tomatoes or watermelon.
- Berries - Again, not just for vegetarians. I eat a LOT of berries. I buy them frozen so they do not get moldy unless I am going to eat them same day. I typically buy organic. This is my BIG indulgence on business trips... my co-workers indulge on steaks, but I go find the nearest natural foods coop and spend big bucks of someone else's money on fresh organic berries. It's still cheaper than steak.
- Tea - I lived in China AND England so I'm a fan of both black and green. Right now I drink a lot of organic fair trade blueberry black tea and a lot of green tea as well (my favorite is cherry sencha). This isn't just for vegetarians and it's a great way to stay healthy.
- Citrus - I probably do not do as well as I should here. This also isn't just for vegetarians. Now that flu season is upon us I have started buying OJ. I try not to buy Coca-Cola products and it drives me nuts that they make Simply Orange, Odwalla, and Minute Maid so I have to run around looking for another brand.
I'm not looking to convince anyone. I never LOVED meat the way some people do. I've also heard of people going vegetarian and then eating meat again for health reasons. However, I know that liberals tend to pay attention to environmental issues and many Kossacks are vegetarian or vegan already. If anyone is vacillating about the decision, I hope my story has helped.