in the belly of the beast

I like my job, I really do. And I love the grocery store where I work–I miss it when I leave for college each fall, and throughout the school year. But after reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which I mentioned in the last post, I just can’t look at my lovely grocery store in the same way. It’s the end-result of the monster of industrial agriculture.

Yes, it still has it’s positive aspects–the best produce in town (of the large chain stores, of course, the farmer’s market is a bajillion times better), an extensive health food section for your average grocery store, and Chinese food that will make you ridiculously fat and happy. If you read the previous post, you might guess that most of that glorious Chinese food is off limits now, and it is. But I had the lone vegetarian dish–vegetable lo mein–during my break today, and have decided that it will be my unhealthy treat for when my arteries need a good clogging. Oh, and for all of you plastic-phobes out there, dining in the grocery store’s seating area means eating on a real plate, with real silverware! The only shortfall is the styrofoam cup, but that’s my own fault for forgetting my water bottle.

Then there’s the dark side, when you move away from the naked produce smiling happily up at you and into any other part of the store. It’s all covered in PLASTIC. Even the bulk bins are accompanied by little environment-killing bags on a roll. And when you move away from the edges of the store, everything is not only ensconced in plastic, it’s all PROCESSED too. It’s evil to the core! And for hours on end, I stand at a register, happily asking “Would you like paper or plastic, today?” ringing up all of this food. I always hope they ask for paper–I’ve heard most of it’s made from recycled paper, but I don’t know the specs on my bags–and I always smile when they say, “No thanks, I’ve brought my own bags,” and I get to give them a $.05/bag credit. Then I fill those reusable bags with countless little bags of plastic. And it makes me sad all over again.

The worst part of it is that what’s inside those plastic bags is indirectly derived from petroleum (unless it’s organic). It probably has at least one of the many products derived from corn, such as high-fructose corn syrup, and that corn is grown using fertilizers made from petroleum. So we’re eating food grown with petroleum that has been wrapped in a product made from petroleum, all while we’re running out of oil and complaining about high gas prices. Oh, Lord.

why I do not eat meat

I hate to break it to you, but in my multiple reasons for switching to a vegetarian diet (as of Sunday, May 4th–I’m a recent convert, I know) there is nothing about the poor animals’ suffering. While I believe the way animals are treated in CAFOs is ethically wrong and horrible, I would be completely willing to eat animals that have been born, raised, and slaughtered in humane conditions that are sustainable and allow them to behave as their nature would have them. Unfortunately, for most of the year, I live on campus at a lovely university, and I can be pretty sure that these qualifications are not met by the company that provides our food (time to write some letters, I think?). So, if I have no qualms with the heartless killing of innocent creatures, why go to the trouble of adopting a vegetarian diet?

I’ll start with the reason that first started me down the path–I’m going to Scotland in the spring for a semester of studying abroad. I am so excited about this that it’s kind of hard to put it into words, so I’ll just tell you that I’m pumped. I’ll be living in Findhorn, an ecovillage on the northern coast, with 10-20ish other college kids participating in their Community Semester. Yes, I appreciate the irony of flying half-way around the world to learn about sustainable living, but I’m young and have wanderlust, so it’s just something my conscience will have to deal with. Anyway, the cuisine served in the community kitchen at Findhorn is vegetarian, so I figured why not start getting ready now? Thus the expedition began.

Reason #2: My family’s health history is scary. I’ve said it before: I’ll be lucky to live past 40 without some terrible ailment. There’s cancer and heart disease everywhere, endocrine disorders, cholesterol issues, you name it. So my goal is to live as healthily as possible, because I kind of like life.

Reason #3: The vast majority of meat produced in the US is floating on a vast ocean of cheap corn (I can’t remember if I’m stealing this metaphor from Micheal Pollan’s amazing book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma*, or not, so I’ll just be safe and give him some credit), which in turn is based on cheap oil, which as we all hopefully are starting to grasp, will not last forever. It is a completely unsustainable system that is costing us through the health of our landscapes and bodies.

Reason #4: The most important one–we can feed a heck of a lot more people on grains and produce than we can on meat. I remember briefly discussing in freshman biology the principle that only ten percent of something an organism consumes becomes more mass on that organism (I can’t remember the name of this little fact for the life of me). So basically, a cow eats 100 pounds of feed and makes 10 more pounds of cow from that. So instead of 100 pounds of food going directly to humans, it’s reduced to 10 pounds of food. We need to stop growing all this corn for cows–which isn’t even what they’re supposed to eat in the first place–and instead grow food that people can eat. I, for one, think global hunger sucks. Let’s do something to fight it. Vote with your stomach

*There’s no link for this one–get it at your local library or independent book store!

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what I’m currently appreciating: Pandora Radio, and couscous from the bulk bin at my favorite grocery store