June 1997 - October 14, 2008Such a small, beautiful bird who's taken such a huge part of my heart with her.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Branwen
June 1997 - October 14, 2008Such a small, beautiful bird who's taken such a huge part of my heart with her.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Confessions of a (failed?) vegan locovore
To the right of this blog post you'll see a poll I created some time ago to see what people thought were the challenges to eating locally. I was surprised to see that in comparison to the choices I included in the poll, the single most important concern of the people who voted was that there wasn't enough variety available when it came to eating local foods. In light of this and many other local food concerns I have discovered, it never fails to strike me how similar the issues are between deciding to eat a local vegan diet and deciding to cut animals out of one's diet. The parallels between the excuses and fears can be so similar I am beginning to see that many of the vegan ethics that apply to the arguments against eating animals also apply to the ethical arguments of the pressing need to eat more locally sourced vegan diets.
For a few months now the pleasures and complexities of eating a locally sourced vegan diet is an issue that has occupied my mind on a daily basis. It's caused me to be far more conscious of the possible impacts my food choices have in my life and on the planet's health. As well, I am far more conscious of the socio-political impacts these choices have on the many people whose livelihoods and well being are affected both positively and negatively by my choices. I am also more aware of how my decision to buy foods produced from afar could be affecting my freedom to decide what it is I put into my body (I am referring to Monsanto's goal to literally own food as we know it). My greater awareness of who is involved in the production of the food I eat and how my food reaches its final destination -- my growling stomach -- has caused me to pause and consider many serious things. In particular, what weighs heaviest on my mind is that there are indeed far-reaching consequences connected to my shopping habits that make mindless consumerism an uncomfortable situation.
I long to give into my desire to simply put out of my mind the gravity of global warming and buy whatever I want, regardless how many miles my food traveled or how much oil was used to produce it. I can't deny that as much as I know it's unreasonable to include coconut milk as a staple in my kitchen cupboard I want to be able to reach for it whenever I please and not give a another moment’s thought to it. I think to myself that I appear as though I am too serious and no fun, though in the back of my mind the proverbial voice of reason tells me my so-called fun comes with a heavy price. I ask myself why my approach to something as simple and seemingly innocent as a cupcake is fraught with worries about how each of the ingredients I use has more underlying significance than I want to give them. The seeming luxury of being able to walk into any store and purchase any foodstuff I wish, sometimes regardless of the price, has become to me less of a luxury and more of a burden. Where ignorance is not bliss where veganism is concerned, similarly ignorance is far from bliss where my food is concerned.
Unlike the authors of The 100-Mile Diet who leapt into the deep waters of their experiment feet first, I was unwilling to follow in their paths and simply abandon my ethics when it comes to why I choose not to eat animals or their bodily excretions. I don't think that a locally based vegan diet is an impossibility, but I do think that it is a choice and transition that takes some serious thought. Without prepackaged breakfast cereals, soy and rice milks in handy Tetra Paks, and many of the other convenience/processed foods I have taken for granted for years, deciding what to do about what to eat has plunged me into a situation with food that I didn't experience when I first became vegan. That is, unlike the experiences some people have when becoming vegan, my own decision to become vegan never made me feel lost and uncertain when it came to knowing there were many food choices available to me. But in my efforts to rely more exclusively upon the farmers markets in my region I have found that my approaches to eating locally have increasingly left me in situations in which cooking from scratch is a burden.
So what are my options? Where is a happier medium, if there is any? What have been my pitfalls and how did I create them? And where can I go from here?
For a few months now the pleasures and complexities of eating a locally sourced vegan diet is an issue that has occupied my mind on a daily basis. It's caused me to be far more conscious of the possible impacts my food choices have in my life and on the planet's health. As well, I am far more conscious of the socio-political impacts these choices have on the many people whose livelihoods and well being are affected both positively and negatively by my choices. I am also more aware of how my decision to buy foods produced from afar could be affecting my freedom to decide what it is I put into my body (I am referring to Monsanto's goal to literally own food as we know it). My greater awareness of who is involved in the production of the food I eat and how my food reaches its final destination -- my growling stomach -- has caused me to pause and consider many serious things. In particular, what weighs heaviest on my mind is that there are indeed far-reaching consequences connected to my shopping habits that make mindless consumerism an uncomfortable situation.
I long to give into my desire to simply put out of my mind the gravity of global warming and buy whatever I want, regardless how many miles my food traveled or how much oil was used to produce it. I can't deny that as much as I know it's unreasonable to include coconut milk as a staple in my kitchen cupboard I want to be able to reach for it whenever I please and not give a another moment’s thought to it. I think to myself that I appear as though I am too serious and no fun, though in the back of my mind the proverbial voice of reason tells me my so-called fun comes with a heavy price. I ask myself why my approach to something as simple and seemingly innocent as a cupcake is fraught with worries about how each of the ingredients I use has more underlying significance than I want to give them. The seeming luxury of being able to walk into any store and purchase any foodstuff I wish, sometimes regardless of the price, has become to me less of a luxury and more of a burden. Where ignorance is not bliss where veganism is concerned, similarly ignorance is far from bliss where my food is concerned.
Unlike the authors of The 100-Mile Diet who leapt into the deep waters of their experiment feet first, I was unwilling to follow in their paths and simply abandon my ethics when it comes to why I choose not to eat animals or their bodily excretions. I don't think that a locally based vegan diet is an impossibility, but I do think that it is a choice and transition that takes some serious thought. Without prepackaged breakfast cereals, soy and rice milks in handy Tetra Paks, and many of the other convenience/processed foods I have taken for granted for years, deciding what to do about what to eat has plunged me into a situation with food that I didn't experience when I first became vegan. That is, unlike the experiences some people have when becoming vegan, my own decision to become vegan never made me feel lost and uncertain when it came to knowing there were many food choices available to me. But in my efforts to rely more exclusively upon the farmers markets in my region I have found that my approaches to eating locally have increasingly left me in situations in which cooking from scratch is a burden.
So what are my options? Where is a happier medium, if there is any? What have been my pitfalls and how did I create them? And where can I go from here?
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