My Omnivore Resolution... for now

Over the summer, I invested in a farm share. It was a good experience, and more educational – not to mention life altering – than I thought it might be. Basically, I reacquainted myself with vegetables. Beyond salads and my favorite broccoli and pasta combo. I found myself conjuring all sorts of recipes, awakening me to a whole new way of cooking. 

It led me to wonder if I could live off of just vegetables. I mean to say without meat. Certainly I deleted a lot of it from my diet… not that I consume lots cooking on my own anyway… but I did go through a significant spell without it.

Which set me on a contemplation of the vegetarian or vegan lifestyle. There are some amazing resources out there. Some excellent recipes that don’t require tons of effort if one knows her way around a kitchen. And the flavors… mmm… really, quite yummy.

This contemplation of thought and all the ‘eye-opening’ in the media really did get me thinking a bit about food. How we grow it. How we process it. How it is distributed. How it is drained of health value. How we mindlessly consume… so much. So, so much. Something gets lost in there. An appreciation of many things. There is a cruelty to animals. A cruelty to the workers who manufacture our foods. A cruelty to our individual bodies as we deposit crap into our digestive tracks.

So I started to set myself down that path of weaning. Of changing mental channels and my lifestyle. I was going to do something good for the earth and my soul. I was going to give up meat.

But I changed my mind. No. Not because I can’t conjure a thought about living without it. I could do that. I have done it. Not because I am insensitive to the depravities of the mass production. But because… in the world of battles I choose to pick, I’ve decided this isn’t mine.

I have read and listened to a lot of arguments about animal rights. I agree with them… sort of. I am moved by some of the awful things we people do to animals. I find it deplorable in a lot of instances. But then I was part of a discussion about funding for some of our programs, where we educate children, human children about how to not mistreat other human children. And someone brought up a heartbreaking point. If we were talking about animals, it would be a lot easier to generate sympathy and money.

Whoa. Okay. Don’t get in a tizzy because I just said people value animals more than children. It’s a broad statement that isn’t necessarily true of all people. But… well,I remember working with a woman during Hurricane Katrina. She wasn’t lamenting the fact people were holed up in the stadium. Her biggest upset was that the dogs would get out of New Orleans. Yeah, that’s a concern… a heartbreaking concern… but really? What about the people? People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals seem to forget that people are… well, animals. Especially if that person has an extra X chromosome. I could go on and on and on. But this is all to say that I have decided, yes, it is awful what people do to animals. I am not for two seconds going to argue against that. I don’t think it is right. But I think it is more awful the way people treat other people. And THAT is the primary focus of my empathetic energy.

Does it have to be mutually exclusive? Maybe not. But I was sitting at Thanksgiving dinner with my aunt and cousin the other day. They had a farm a couple years back, with pigs and sheep that were our Easter dinners. I remember feeding those pigs and petting those sheep every Sunday after church. Yes, they were killed in the end. But they were treated very well. Very well. They also had chickens. But, as my aunt pointed out, the chickens always didn’t fare so well. Because the foxes and the weasels had them for dinner. Those foxes and weasels didn’t have crises of conscience. They had an instinct to follow their place on the food chain.

I believe in that food chain. As a human being, I am nearer to the top. But I also respect the fact that I am not at the peak and that a bear is perfectly capable of consuming me. And I suspect that bear also won’t have second thoughts about having me for supper if it is hungry. I hope it won’t… but that is my karma for eating other animals.

That is my logic to ease my conscience sure. Maybe you think I’m wrong. But this isn’t about you. It is entirely and completely about me. My body. My health. My choice to do good things for me. There are a lot of options and opinions about what constitutes a healthy diet. There are a lot of studies willing to prove one choice is better than any other. I will eat less meat and more vegetables. I want to eliminate processed food and support local growers and farmers. I want to be more cognizant of where things come from before they settle in my stomach.

Because… at the end of the day, if I carve a path and a habit for my consumption that is a respect to my health, my wellbeing, and my body, it will inevitably open up my mind to have respect for all bodies and their wellbeing. Human, animal, and plant. But if I have to choose between the three, my heart will always go for the human.