Does What We Eat Define Us?

I'd like to discuss this without a firestorm. I have questions.

The Judeo-Christian ethic teaches that the world and all its creatures are here for Man's use. Based on that logic, we have used this world's resources, abused and depleted them. Among the problems we have created is the factory farm.

I am a vegetarian. I'll tell you that up front because I'm not trying to do a sneak attack on those of you who aren't. From an animal rights perspective, I'm only part of the way there. To really practice what I believe, I should be vegan. So I understand that making a drastic lifestyle change is a huge and difficult step. Okay?

First, I want to know if there is a way to discuss this issue without the knee jerk hysteria that so often happens the minute you say, "Eating animal products is bad on a number of different levels and our modern livestock agriculture is inhumane."

It's blunt, but it's fact. You live longer if you don't eat meat. Here are some links if you want to study the numbers.

http://www.thevegetariansite.com/diet_stud.htm

That's enough right there to start a fight, and I wonder why that is. Is it because it threatens our habits? Is it because it is seen as an implied criticism?

But wait until you start discussing the ethics of modern farming. We have a vision of the family farm, the peaceful cows in the field, the well cared for animals that are treated with respect, with care until the time comes for them to be slaughtered for meat. That's not reality. And we know it.

The book "Eating Animals" is a bestseller. It documents the horrific conditions under which today's animals life on factory farms. The movie "Peaceable Kingdom" is making the film festival rounds (and winning). It tells the stories of farmers, good, compassionate people who try to run humane livestock operations, who realize that their livelihood is based on a belief they can no longer support: they kill the animals they care for.

Our children's bodies are full of antibiotics from the food we feed them. Their hormone levels are artifically elevated. Our food is tainted, it makes us sick. Sometimes it kills us. The animals are kept in conditions that we could not abide if we witnessed it firsthand.

Scientists say the huge population of animals are contributing half the methane that's changing our climate.

Yet look at this article in a Missouri newspaper. Obviously, in a farm state the question of animal rights would be seen as threatening. What strikes me is the tone of the comments below it. It's a "war".

http://www.marshfieldmail.com/articles/2010/02/09/opinion/doc4b71ee6a615ee713670417.txt

I don't want to fight. I want to know if it is possible to lay out the arguments, line them up against that "Man is the Earth's Master" chestnut and see if it's possible to get past the knee jerk denial to a place where the evidence can begin to be considered on its own merits.

The family farm, a beloved part of my background, is already dying, killed by big agriculture. A plant-based diet won't kill it. Creativity will, in fact, save the few that remain. Rather than eat the animals on farms, find ways to make money from our nostalgia for that way of life. Or switch to sustainable crops. Don't tell me I'm anti-farm; I'm not.

For me, the bottom line became that I couldn't justify the death of an animal to please my palate. I don't have that right. It was that simple. All the arguments are there to support my diet. The arguments for eating animal products don't stand up to scrutiny.

So it's a very personal choice, and perhaps that's why it's such an emotional one. But I can tell you that when I see a pig, a cow, a chicken at the county fair now, that disconnect between my fondness for them and what I eat is gone. And that's a huge relief.

Avast, Ye Scurvy Dogs...Or Why I Feel Like A Pirate

Forget Orlando Bloom. Forget Keira Knightly. Forget Johnny Depp (if you can). I now know more about the real pirate experience than I care to.

Let us back up. Three years ago I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease. Oh yeah, test came back positive on the first try. Swollen joints, flu symptoms, fatigue, everything but the bullseye. A month of antibiotics later, I guess I was cured.

This past summer was a tick nightmare here. A walk from the house to the car would result in a tick in my hair. Mowing the yard meant not only picking off a tick, but fighting off ground bees. It was just hideous. But nobody got past my screening system. Until I went to California.

After the plane trip of death, we had dinner, fell into bed and I got up the next morning to prepare for the workshop I was part of. In the shower, I found a tick. Dead, he was, but still hanging on to my hip.

"Ew! Ew, ew ew!!!" What was I to do? I was a very long way from home and wouldn't be back for three days. I decided to wait to see a doctor. I flushed the little bastard down the toilet.

Back at home, I went to the doctor.

"It won't show up immediately," they said. "But we can put you on a three day antibiotic regimen and that should head it off."

Sounded good to me. I did it. I was supposed to go back and get a blood test to be sure but I felt okay and I was BUSY!

Fast forward three months. I'm now a confirmed vegetarian instead of a part time one, I'm not feeling well at all and I'm thinking maybe I'm seriously anemic. I break down and get that long overdue blood test.

"You," the doctor informs me when she calls, "have Lyme. You've probably had it for six months. You've got seven out of ten indicators. Plus you're so low on vitamin D I'm going to put you on a prescription strength supplement."

"How'd I manage that?"

"You need dairy, meat and sunshine."

Check, check and check. None of the above in my life lately.

I looked it up. Guess what vitamin D deficiency results in? Rickets.

Bone softness, deformity, the kind of ailments the pirates suffered from after long months at sea.

So of course now that I know what's wrong, I feel worse than ever. I'm exhausted, cranky, stressed and a little worried about what six months of spirochetes in my system have done to me.

But it's kind of cool, too. I might have rickets. Argh!

One friend informed me that she thought I should have a peg leg. I'm going to try on an eye patch.

And just think - if I wanted to, I could probably develop scurvy next!

Move over, Capt Jack Sparrow. There's a new seadog in town. Avast!

Maybe I'll start being more faithful with those multivitamins.

Happy Gratitude Day

This one's a challenge this year, but let me give it a shot:

I'm thankful for my guy - he's been a gift.

I'm thankful for my kids - they've become interesting and worthwhile human beings.

I'm thankful there are a growing number of people who won't eat meat today. I'm glad that I'm one of them

I'm grateful for my health, though I take it for granted.

I'm grateful for the people I've known, the friends I have and the ones I've lost touch with. I've had a rich life.

I'm grateful for opportunities - both ones I've pursued and ones that have dropped into my lap.

I'm thankful for the natural beauty I've been lucky enough to grow up in. I've seen a truly dark sky, heard nothing but birds and smelled nothing but pine needles. I've been underwater in a freshwater pond and stood under a waterfall. That, I know, is a gift.

Hope you all have something to be grateful for, too.

Peaceable Kingdom Is Coming - Pass It On

Did you see the climate change issue differently after watching Al Gore's
"An Inconvenient Truth"? Then you are the audience for a new film that's about to be released by NY-based filmmakers Tribe of Heart.

It's a movie that will change the way you see farm animals. I saw it as part of their pre-release audience testing. It is called "Peaceable Kingdom, The Journey Home".

Filmmakers Jenny Stein and James LaVeck have made a powerful film on a controversial issue, but they've kept a compassionate touch. Rather than strident demands for change, they've focused the film on livestock farmers whose own lives transformed when they began to question what they were doing. The answers to those questions haven't been easy, and their conclusions have cost them friendships and a great deal of money. But those answers have also created amazing relationships with animals they once considered food. The softening of their hearts is reflected in their faces.

Tribe of Heart goes to farm animal sanctuaries and introduces us to farm animals in a way many of us have never experienced. Once you've gotten to know them, it is impossible to believe they are any less individual, sentient creatures than the pets we love.

There is inescapable evidence that our factory farm, mass produced food system is dangerous. The latest recall involves the most benign food of all - cookie dough. Tribe of Heart goes behind the scenes, showing the creatures at those farms, showing the conditions in which they live and the way they die. These are tough scenes to watch, but open your own heart. Realize that what you eat, what you ate at your last meal, came from those conditions. Be brave enough to see where that food that's presented so neatly wrapped at your cavernous grocery store really comes from. If it raises questions in your own mind - all the better.

Open yourself to the possibility of change. "Peaceable Kingdom - The Journey Home" is a great first step.

Quantum Physics and Vegan Cookbooks

I almost forgot ... I'm supposed to be having fun!

It all came back to me today. In my compulsive need to be ahead of schedule, the current understaffed nature of The Station is making me feel the need to get my work done hours ahead of time. Two stories a day used to be a full day's work. Lately I'm getting those done by halfway through the day, skipping lunch and continuing to work on The Show.

I stand up at the end of the day, wonder at my tense shoulders and aching back and drag myself home. I'm a ton of fun, let me tell you.

But that shifted today. I did my usual overdrive morning, got two stories put together hours before they were needed, then started surfing the Internet. It wasn't casual surfing; I was looking for new ideas for The Show. But today I looked at what I was curious about...not whatever idea seemed feasible and easy to find guests for.

I started with cookbooks. I have been trying to drop animal products from my diet with limited success for months now. And HSO's various aches, ailments and general discomforts make it clear he's due for a dietary upgrade as well. So I looked for a vegan cookbook that looked not only fun, but tasty and within the cooking abilities of a regular kitchen shlump (that would be me). I found Vegan With a Vengeance. It's called post-punk cooking and I loved it on sight.
So I wrote to the author. And wouldn't you know it - she's going to be in my very own neighborhood within a month or two so I can talk to her in person. Yippee!

I moved on to quantum physics. I'm a closet nerd - or maybe the closet isn't as tightly shut as I think. I've read Chaos. I've waded through The Dancing Wu-Li Masters. I've read Ramtha and Seth, navigated The Tao of Physics : I've seen Mindwalk and What the Bleep Do We Know? I know just enough to know I don't know anything. I want to find someone who does.

I discovered that the guy who became rich with the invention of the Blackberry used a good chunk of his profits to establish an institute in Canada to study quantum physics. Oh this is fun. I checked them out and there are a few women there...I faxed them to see if they'd talk to me. The institute doesn't have an email contact. Interesting, no?

My daughter dropped in, we went out and had a bite to eat (I had seitan, if you're checking
on me) and I realized I was having the best day at work I've had in ages.

Time to relax, I think. It's all in how I approach it...and I know that. I just have to remember not to forget.