A Year Exploring the Ethics of Eating, and A New Vegan Challenge

Into Veganism and Back

According to Facebook, on this day in 2010 I stated that I was sick from browsing the PETA blogs and was contemplating vegetarianism. Since then I've gone vegetarian, vegan, and settled into my current status as a flexitarian. It's been an extremely rewarding experience, the end result of which has been:



- I'm concerned about our food supply, which is in crisis



- I have boycotted bottled water



- I wonder why 'organic' is now a high-priced lifestyle that only the rich can afford, whereas it was 'the norm' before the Green Revolution


- I don't know why pregnant women get all excited about eating smoked salmon and brie cheese, but find it completely acceptable to expose their unborn child to hundreds of chemicals via their toiletries, makeup, cleaning products, food, perfume, vehicles, Febreeze spray bottles, Air Wick air fresheners etc etc etc



- I have grave concerns for our planet's farmers, which are under attack by Monsanto and the commercial interests of large corporations



- I fear that my grandchildren will grow up in a world where the beaches are too toxic and cluttered with plastic garbage to play in



- I have planted an organic garden on my patio



- I've rejected my business school brainwashing. Externalized costs are borne by the poor, and it's disgusting. The market needs to be realigned so corporations are rewarded for doing good deeds, not punished with plummeting stock prices.



- I think people should receive tax credits if they dedicate a portion of their lawn to growing food, instead of grass



- I try to store and transport my food in glass jars instead of toxic, oil-based plastic


I'm Not A Judgemental Hippy-Hipster Jerk!
Now, all this makes me sound like a very judgemental person.  After spending 212 days as a vegan, I know first hand how easy it is to become self-righteous food jerk.

In my experience however, it's very hard to be perfect all the time. As a good vegetarian friend of mine put it, "After a while it seems like the only morally acceptable thing to do is sit in a room with the lights off, drinking tap water and gnawing an organic carrot".

This is not my idea of a good time, and chances are it's a lifestyle that won't appeal to people en mass.

But just because you aren't a hardcore vegan, riding your bike past the capitalist jerks sipping their Starbucks in their Porch SUVs , doesn't mean you can't do something meaningful.

In fact, I believe that the only way we will ever bring about a noticeable impact in the world is by getting everyone to make one or two small lifestyle changes. Do not underestimate the impact of critical mass!

Victories
I have made a few small victories in my community, and I am truly inspired by it. These victories include:

- Convincing my mother to drop her chemical laden 'beauty' regime and start using my organic, home made beauty products

- Inspiring my facebook friends to try some yummy vegan recipes

- Getting my parents to do a detox

- Making my partner healthier by cooking nutritious vegetarian dishes for him

- Convincing my partner to drop milk from his son's diet in favor or nut or rice milk


From my experience, people respond more to the carrot instead of the rod. If you make people feel bad about what they eat, how they live, what they drive etc. they won't be open to anything you have to say. Inspiring change is far more effective than demanding change.


A Seasonal Vegan?
So, what has the point of this whole journey been? I am seeking a happy medium. A balance, if you will.

Since ending my Vegan Challenge on May 9, 2011, I have been occasionally eating meat or seafood when I am out with company or as a guest at someones home. I have bought free range eggs and dairy. I have cooked with meat a few times for my partner, but still find it very difficult to have to touch or smell raw animal flesh. If I am cooking for myself, I won't actively go out and purchase meat. I just can't stomach the sight of it.

Lately I have been feeling badly about dropping the challenge. It's been nice to not have to be the hard-to-please vegan guest when I go out to dinner, and I have really missed cheese. But my current feeling is that the costs of eating dairy and meat exceed the benefits.

So that being said, I am going to embark upon another vegan challenge. From today onwards, I won't be buying any more animal-based food.

However, being the pragmatist that I am I will use up the remaining dairy and prawns (leftover from a dinner party) in my fridge.

After all, food is precious. Even if it's not vegan :)

The Politics of Lawns

I have a problem with lawns. Topsoil is quickly becoming a scare resource.  We are running out of the material which we use to grow our food. Yet in North America, we have been conditioned to waste our topsoil growing lawns.

The average home owner sits on a very generous portion of land, which could be used to grow food. But instead of growing food, people put down sod, drench it with chemicals, and use it to grow grass.

The lawn has become the ultimate status symbol. If you have a perfectly manicured lawn, it is a sign of affluence. People who let their lawns get overgrown are a source of scorn by the other law-abiding citizens who 'put in the effort' to maintain their yard.

In the most extreme cases,  we hire low-wage workers to mow and fertalize the lawn. The low-paid workers are exposed to the carcinogenic chemicals, while we sit in our houses and sip chardonnay or go to Choices to buy ridiculously over-priced organic produce.

Am I the only one who finds this bizzare? Why don't people grow their own food on some of their land?

Organic swiss chard, grown on my patio in garden boxes

My parents are a prime example of this. They have both a front and back yard, which they painstakingly maintain every weekend. They love to garden. But they don't grow any food. I recall growing up as a child and not being able to play on the lawn because it was covered in lime, or fertalizer, or it was being airated, or the new grass seed needed a chance to grow.

Why the hell bother having a lawn if your children can't even play on it?


I raised this topic with my parents, and asked them to plant a dwarf fig tree in their yard. They weren't warm to the idea. I pointed out that they could save money on food if they grew some of their own. They still weren't convinced. I argued that they should at least try to grow some of the more expensive food items, like spring mix or figs or asparagus.

After a few weeks of badgering, they have now planted some asparagus. Not a complete victory, but it's a start.

They have recently put up a huge fence around their back lawn, so that their dog can't go in it. So, now the lawn is really just used for:

1) Looking at
2) Walking across

Somehow I feel the land could be put to better use. Especially given the rising food costs coming our way this year.

What do you think? Should more people set aside some of their lawns to grow food? Is the lawn losing its foothold as a status symbol and quickly becoming a sign of stupidity and vanity?

Leave your comments below!

Wild Rose Cleanse Day #1

Today was day #1 and it has gone much better than expected. I sorely missed my morning coffee with organic sugar and soy creamer, and right now I am hankering for a nice glass of red wine. But other than that, it's been smooth sailing. There was no explosive diarreah or extreme intestinal distress, no pounding headache or flu-like symptoms.

I taught dance for 5.5 hours, and had good energy up til the last half hour.

My only complaint is that I was a tad bloaty in the early evening. But I can live with that :)

Zen and the Art of Baby Stawberries

We spread leadened gloss on our vain lips and pay for the sin of vanity with our tumored breasts.

We demand cheap meat, feast upon the tortured flesh, poison the earth and are incredulous when we become ill.

We trust in the Corporation, and let It tell us what to eat, what to breath, what to swaddle our children in.

We buy new things to replace our perfectly good old things, on credit that we cannot afford.

Our old things are buried, our sins buried, our past worthlessness is buried until it pollutes the earth and our grandchildren grow up unable to swim in the oceans, not knowing the taste of real strawberries.

My soul weeps. My heart is heavy, it does not soar.

How has this come to be? Greed. Gluttony. Displaced values and low self worth.

All I need, is enough. More than enough is more than enough. If there is excess when I am done, then I have consumed in excess. And I am ashamed.

To boast of excess used to be a way of showing power, status, and affluence. Excess is gluttony, obesity of the spirit, impairment of judgment.

A one dollar hamburger eaten with one hand while one person drives an SUV one block. This is the isolating metric of our time.

The lucky ones work tedious jobs to earn more money to pay for expensive gym memberships and expensive organic food, so they can escape the diseases of the poor: cancer, obesity, unbridled consumerism and credit card debt.


And still, we are all so alone. Things cannot fill the emptiness.


A fast food bag, travels three feet from the drive thru window to the car. And it has finally fulfilled it's destiny.

The three second journey from the window to the car, where it is pillaged by the chubby, greasy fingers of child on the verge of type two diabetes, is the useful life of the paper bag. Three seconds. Millions of trees logged, barrels of oil burned, kilotons of pollution created for that three second journey.

My heart is heavy. My soul, diminished.

And so I plant a garden. I place seeds in the earth, till the soil with my bare hands, and wait. I am patient, I do not demand more of the earth than it can give. I accept.

I find Zen in my garden. I am sincere in my intentions. I will give to the earth, and will take back only what it yields, less a little bit.

This transaction between myself and my garden, this exchange of energy, is a microcosm. It is a model for world peace. It is the solution to climate change. It is my own little secret, my private revolution.

I take a deep inhale, close my eyes, exhale, and let my gaze fall on my plot of baby strawberries. I smile, and suddenly all is right with the world.

Jenny fell off the Vegan Christmas Bandwagon

So the holidays have come and gone, and I'm relieved.

After all my efforts in locating an ethically produced turkey, my mother went and got an heirloom turkey from Whole Foods. The bird cost a whopping $6/lb. compared to the paltry $0.89/lb at Superstore.



Now, in the days leading up to Christmas I was quite sick. Consequently I wasn't able to cook all my own food and bring it to my parent's for Christmas dinner. Due to a combination of laziness and mother-induced-I-bought-this-expensive-turkey-so-you-better-eat-it guilt, I fell off the vegan bandwagon.

I ingested butter, cream, cheese, seafood, and of course, turkey. I have to admit, I didn't enjoy eating these foods as much as I thought I would. Somehow, things just didn't taste as good as I remember them tasting. And my body was so unused to such rich food, that I ended up with a horrible stomach ache and needed to have one of my dad's antacid tablets.

So, just another typical Christmas. Eat, drink, be merry, and pay for it later in the bathroom.

The one good thing I found about being vegan during the holidays, as that I'm not dealing with the typical holiday weight gain and bloat. I just had one day of eating rich food, instead of the usual 31 days that most people have.

And that feels pretty damn good :)

Ethical Turkey Producers? Update

So my quest for an ethical turkey producer has yielded some interesting results. I emailed several local turkey farms and wrote:

Hi there!

I was wondering if your farm grants the public access to your farming facilities. Would it be possible for me to come see the conditions that the birds live in prior to slaughter? Or, would it be possible for me to come and see how the birds are actually slaughtered?

 

I was also curious about the following things:

 

• What is the average age of each bird when it is slaughtered? Are the birds typically allowed to reproduce before slaughter?

• Do you practise traditional methods of animal husbandry? Or are the birds artificially inseminated?

• Are the birds able to reproduce on their own? Ie. Do their reproductive organs have full functionality?

• Do you have a regular veterinarian who treats ill animals? What is your company policy with respect to ill or diseased animals?

• Do you currently have any policies or procedures to ensure that the birds exist in an environment with a stable social hierarchy?

• What procedures do you use to ensure that the workers in charge of handling the birds are treating the animals humanely? Are job applicants subject to any sort of screening process?

• Are you workers paid a living wage?

• Have you obtained SPCA Certification?

• Are your animals raised organically? Are you currently certified by the Canada Food Inspection Agency as an organic producer?

I am desperately seeking a local, ethical, meat producer. I want to know if there are still decent farmers out there. I want to believe in something.

 

Please let me know if this is you.

 

I only received one response, and it read:

 

Jenny,

 

At this time due to the Avian Flu problem we have no outside access to our barns. If you go to our website www.jdfarms.ca and click under about JD Farms and a tab will pop up Our Specialty Turkey and then scroll down to our Stringent Certification Program to  view our turkey raising procedures.

 

Hope our program answers all your questions.

 

I  spoke with a friend at Health Canada and he informed me that many poultry producers are concerned about Avian Bird Flu, so they don't let unauthorized individuals enter the barns.

 

Feeling like I'd hit a brick wall, I clicked on the "Stringent Certification Program" link and reviewed their procedures.

The most troubling part of their standards include the space allotted per 13kg bird, which is only 3.75 square feet (Section IV, Living Conditions, rule 1d). If you do the math, that is less than 2 feet by 2 feet. The birds are also not allowed access to outside runs (Section IV, Living Conditions, rule 2). The turkeys are also subject to beak and toe trimming  (Section VIII, Physical Alterations, rules 1 and 2).  Based on what I am reading, this seems like a factory farming operation to me. Beak trimming is a practise typically performed to prevent cannibalism, which can result when turkeys are kept in such confined spaces.

So, my quest for an ethical turkey continues. Christmas is fast approaching, and I am anxious to find an ethical turkey option for my family. For while I may not eat any turkey when we sit down to eat, at least I can try and make sure my family doesn't cook themselves a factory farmed bird.

My next option is to explore the real of heritage or heirloom turkeys. Stay tuned for more!

Is there such thing as an ethically produced Christmas Turkey?

With the holidays fast approaching, I am faced with an interesting dilemma. My mother, who has become increasingly supportive of my vegan lifestyle choice, asked if I would grant a reprieve for Christmas and eat some turkey.

She offered to get an organic free range turkey. I told her that the terms ‘organic’ and ‘free range’ mean nothing when it comes to animal cruelty.

 Organic simply means that the animals aren’t fed antibiotics or animal by-products, along with a few other stipulations.

The major problem with the term organic is that Canada is currently transitioning from a voluntary system, whereby anyone could call their product organic and get away with it, to a government regulated system. The problem I have with this is that the transition is a slow and gradual one, and the other problem is that the slaughter houses themselves don’t have to be certified as organic.

 ‘Free range’ simply means that the animals are allowed access to the outdoors. In practise however, hundreds of ‘free range’ chickens are often crammed into a filthy barn with a tiny door leading to a dirt pen, and most of them never able to venture outside. The tiny door leading to the dirty holding pen represent a technicality, a minimum threshold that, once met, allows the producers to sell their eggs and chickens for a 200% to 300% mark-up.

The term ‘free range’ invokes images of healthy laying hens, living in a whitewashed henhouse, their eggs gently hand picked by a loving farmer.

In reality, this isn’t what is happening.

The only way to really know if the food you are eating is coming from an ethical farm is if you go to the farm itself. Unless you are allowed to view the facility, see how the animals are raised and ‘processed’, then you cannot be sure if the animals led a good life and were slaughtered humanely.

My mother then offered to take a field trip out to the farm, to make sure. I told her I wasn’t certain if I wanted her to do that. I wouldn’t want her to go through all the trouble to get a special turkey, only to find that I couldn’t bring myself to eat it for Christmas dinner.

The more important question for me is why is it so important for me to eat turkey on Christmas?

Well, I know why. As humans, we have deeply rooted traditions which centre around the consumption of roasted meat. This harkens back to our days roasting wild boar over a fire as cavemen.

As a child growing up, the smell of prime rib on a chilly Sunday evening meant family dinner. It meant togetherness. It meant lingering over a lovingly prepared meal, grounding ourselves as a family unit and sharing in a comforting ritual before the long week ahead.

Can such togetherness be shared if people are eating vegetables? Does the presence of tofu preclude the presence of family?

To be fair to my mother, I am researching the possibility of an ethical grey area. A meat eater’s utopia where they can consume ethically raised and slaughtered meat.

Traditional farmers once upheld the ideal that an animal raised for slaughter should be allowed to live a rich life. Not just a life free from cruelty, but a rich and fulfilling life.

An animal should be allowed to perform species specific behaviours such as spreading its wings, grazing, pecking, and burrowing. It should be allowed to select mating partners, give birth, raise its young, take part in complex social hierarchies. And at the end of a fulfilling life, they should be granted a death nobler than they would have met in the wild (Ie. Being eaten by a predator or dying of illness or wound).  

This is utopia.

Currently, less than 1% of the meat eaten in Canada was produced under such conditions. 99% off all meat found in stores and restaurants is factory farmed.

I googled “Fraser Valley Turkey Farms” and was led to several farm websites. I have emailed them the following email:

Hi there!

I was wondering if your farm grants the public access to your farming facilities. Would it be possible for me to come see the conditions that the birds live in prior to slaughter? Or, would it be possible for me to come and see how the birds are actually slaughtered?

I was also curious about the following things:

What is the average age of each bird when it is slaughtered? Are the birds typically allowed to reproduce before slaughter?

Do you practise traditional methods of animal husbandry? Or are the birds artificially inseminated?

Are the birds able to reproduce on their own? Ie. Do their reproductive organs have full functionality?

Do you have a regular veterinarian who treats ill animals? What is your company policy with respect to ill or diseased animals?

Do you currently have any policies or procedures to ensure that the birds exist in an environment with a stable social hierarchy?

What procedures do you use to ensure that the workers in charge of handling the birds are treating the animals humanely? Are job applicants subject to any sort of screening process?

Are you workers paid a living wage?

Have you obtained SPCA Certification?

Are your animals raised organically? Are you currently certified by the Canada Food Inspection Agency as an organic producer?

I am desperately seeking a local, ethical, meat producer. I want to know if there are still decent farmers out there. I want to believe in something.

Please let me know if this is you.

Sincerely,

Jenny Duffy

I do not know which farms, if any, will get back to me. But I will update this blog with my findings.