Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food, asked readers for advice on the rules they use when choosing their food. 2500 submissions later, Pollan made his list of his favorite 20 food rules.
As a meat producer,the vegetarian responses always beg me for comment. Usually, I don’t say anything. I understand vegetarians reasons for avoiding meat protein; I just disagree with their reasoning.
The vegetarian food rule for today?
‘Don’t eat anything you wouldn’t kill yourself.”
I do live by that rule. I do not have a problem killing things and eating them. I hope you do not find me insensitive by saying that. We are part of a larger ecosystem that most of us want do not want to believe in. The reality of the harshness of life makes us uncomfortable. Nature is nasty and very unforgiving. I am in my warm house and outside my walls it is cold and snowing. But if I was stuck out there overnight, only a mere 20 feet from where I now sit, and froze to death, the first animal that found me would lick the carcass seeing if there was something to eat on me, even herbivores like cattle or deer. That is how nature works. Eat or be eaten. Yes, it is harsh. It isn’t nice. Welcome to reality.
Please follow the link and check out the article. A very good read.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I just came across your farm/site through the Kingsland market one. I haven’t read a lot of your posts yet, and just realized this was posted two years ago, but I’m curious, as a vegetarian…would you might informing me what my reason for avoiding meat protein are and why you disagree with my reasoning? I’m wondering how many vegetarians you’ve discussed this with and what reasons they have told you. Tone isn’t conveyed well but this is genuine curiousity hoping for discussion, not calling you out or anything
I don’t have a problem with vegetarians or the reasons they have for being vegetarian. If you are happy and healthy being a vegetarian, congratulations!
I know that for my health I need high protein in my diet. I need fat to give me energy. I don’t eat sugar, carbs affect my body negatively, and if I don’t get some kind of protein in my body, I just don’t seem to function right.
Give me a nice steak and some fried peppers to go with it and I am good to go! I feel full, content and energized for the rest of the day. Without protein, I am hungry all day long.
I have spoken to many ex-vegetarians who are not customers. Their bodies just didn’t do well with the animal protein. I have also seen many teenage girls who stop eating meat because it is the trendy thing to do and their health suffers from it.
What are your reasons for being a vegetarian, if you don’t mind me asking?
I will confess I began 10 years ago as a teenage girl following a (non-mainstream) trend by liking punk music and getting into the PETA things that have infiltrated that, or did back then anyway. I cut out pork (which I liked the least), then beef and then chicken. I was an extremely picky eater anyway looking back at it. From the start I disliked the farming methods I learned about, originally through PETA. After a couple years, it just became habit and I never really thought twice about the fact I didn’t eat it.
Now, I would say my current reasons for remaining vegatarian are that I HIGHLY dislike the way the meat industry is run (although I do need to learn more about Canadian vs. American regulations) and I highly dislike the amount of ignorance surrounding meat and its consumption, as well as food consumption in general. The most common question I am asked is, “Where do you get protein from then?!” as most people seem to believe protein only resides in meat. The same place the cows get it? From plants! While it is true that vitamin B12 is extremely difficult to get from non-meat sources for a human, I have never experienced any sort of problems associated with my diet and prefer to take the view that if you eat a variety of whole foods from good sources, you’ll be fine…variety being the key. The reductionist method of food science is bothersome to me and not how I was raised for the most part. My parents were an odd mix of garden grown vegetables and homemade jam/beetroot yet with baking margarine and Becel in place of butter. My mother was raised in Switzerland where a meal is still based on cramming as many colours as possible on a plate. I’ve never been served a salad at my Aunts that didn’t consist of 6 vegetables neatly arranged.
At this point, I live in an apartment downtown and don’t have too many options to grow my own food. I could do an indoor garden, and may do a little more than herbs this year, but it is still really difficult. I forgot about the community garden and am too late to get a plot this year. I would like to raise chickens one day and perhaps a few other animals, and might honestly start eating meat again then, though sparingly. It is also a price issue now, as I don’t require it and wouldn’t want to eat it unless I were able to get organic, pasture raised animals anyway. I was trying to see if any farms that had organic eggs at the Kingsland market had information about their farms online when I found this
My mother always said I’d be interested in her garden and food preserving methods one day when I mocked her as a teenager…haha. The day has come!