WHO KNOWS WHERE THIS IS GOING...

I've been making some changes in my diet lately. I guess it could be said that I'm trying to be less lazy about what it is I'm eating which is to say, I've been paying attention to ingredients.

Out of genuine curiosity, I asked to see a documentary film called Earthlings, a decidedly biased film about man's relationships with the animals of this world. I'm not gonna do a film review here as that is not the point of this entry. What I will say, is that despite the bias inherent in the film, it is possible to see through to the greater points being brought up. The film was unflinching and brutal and while I imagine it has shocked and traumatized its fair share of viewers into sudden vegetarians/vegans, that was not my reaction overall.

My general reaction was that of anger...like that of betrayal. I have no problem with killing my food. What I do have a problem with is the heinous conditions under which our food animals live out their lives. Just because their destiny is to die for my dinnerplate doesn't mean they are not entitled to an existence as free from disease, stress, and general misery as is reasonable and that their deaths should be as quick and painless as possible. Again, I'm sure the film showed only the worst of what they had found, but that doesn't matter to me as even if there are upstanding facilities out there, I cannot tell where the meats/products have come from based on the packaging or by reading ingredient lists. The FDA doesn't regulate terms/phrases like "humanely treated" so even if a company makes that claim, it doesn't carry any legal weight (The FDA does, for the sake of example, regulate terms like "cheese", "juice", and "milk chocolate" which is why you'll occasionally see "cheese food/product", "orange drink", and "milk chocolate-flavored" on packaging when you're getting anything but the real thing). After digesting the film for a few days and corresponding about it with The Vegan, I decided that, while I have no intention of becoming vegan or even a vegetarian, I would attempt to reduce my usage/consumption of animals and animal products under the idea of "If I use less, I cause less". Another analogue would be that of using fluorescent lighting...you're still using electricity, but now you're using less of it. I also fully admit that my efforts are the rough equivalent of the drop in ocean levels after having removed a glass of water from it :-)

I'm going after the soft targets first in my life to see how I handle the changes and if I'd even notice them. The soft targets in my life are eggs, butter, and leather. I rarely eat eggs themselves and even when I do, they're always scrambled. Otherwise eggs are in recipes only and on top of that, eggs are relatively tasteless. Butter too, I rarely eat outside of a recipe. It's limited to pancakes, waffles, and toast that I wanna put cinnamon sugar on. Otherwise, it's a non-entity. I've still got about a half-dozen eggs and a quarter pound of butter left to use up (I'm not gonna waste them). I've purchased a butter substitute The Vegan recommended (I don't feel like getting up to see what the name is) and have already substituted eggs with applesauce and flaxseed flour using my Best Friend as a guinea pig. I've since told her that I was thinking of her health which is why I've been using the aforementioned substitutes and she's actually delighted that I'm concerned about her health and mine as well. That was well-played politically. Had I dropped The Vegan's name into this, it would've only turned into a negative diatribe.

Leather I intend to rid myself of as well as the film did show cows from India being slaughtered solely for their hides and not for food also. I didn't have a problem with leather in principle because I eat beef and figure that using the hides for leather is simply not wasting the animal whose life was taken. I've always been against fur for that reason as we don't eat foxes, minks, and other animals whose fur is coveted (let alone for the particularly brutal methods used to get that fur...seriously, what is the reason given for skinning the animal alive?). I'm sure in the United States that cows slaughtered for beef also have their hides sold for leather, etc. but since I can't place the origin of the leather in my shoes (my only leather item), I must divest myself of leather as well.

So far, so good. I've made breading for pork chops using the flaxseed flour in place of the egg, applesauce brownies (attempting the flaxseed version today), and applesauce pancakes. The costs of the substitutes are comparable to that of the eggs so finances won't play into this. Cleanup's easier too which is also a bonus :-)

As for milk, which I do use in my cereal and do consume directly, I don't foresee me changing over to any of the various "milks" out there (Why aren't they referred to as "milque"? Vegans have "Chik'in". I'm calling dibs on the copyright then. I'll also claim "porque", "beeph", and "turkie" if no one else has). However, recipe substituting is still possible, but that's further down the road than I'm willing to go right now.

Anyways, despite that, I have been reducing my milk usage. Instead of having cereal seven days a week (I'm lazy in the morning...don't feel like cooking and making even more dishes to wash), I'm having oatmeal every other day and I can have waffles or pancakes (I drink orange juice with those) on one of my days off. That way, my milk usage is reduced to 50% of normal. Again, my goal is conservation, not elimination. I have no intention of refusing meals anywhere I go because they contain meat or animal products. I'm simply reducing my omniverousness. :-)

I bought some Planters mixed nuts to find out if I like or can at least tolerate nuts other than peanuts. I haven't had any yet, but I'll see what results. In the meantime, I'll continue looking at ingredients.

p.s. As one final point, I did find myself wondering if slaughterhouses attract sociopaths like the way jobs which place an adult in care of children attract pedophiles. Quite a number of people in the film being secretly taped seemed to be taking pleasure in torturing and killing their charges...laughing at the pain they're inflicting. That was disturbing. I have ended the lives of some animals (read: mice, and fish when I was younger), but have never taken pleasure in having done so.

(originally posted to That Other Journal on December 16, 2008)

ADDENDUM: I did not stick this diet plan nor did I ever get around to finding non-leather shoes. If I remember correctly, my Mom bought me a couple pairs of shoes for my birthday in 2009 and by the time those had worn out, I was moving off this diet plan. I forget exactly when I moved on but certain little things have stuck like my snack cookies are still vegan and I still only use marinara sauce. I was good with bread for a while but the need to increase fiber in my diet means my bread is no longer vegan. That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure other stuff still is being done. When I make soup, it's still a vegan vegetable soup and during the days I eat it (it takes several, like five days...I don't know how to make "a little soup"), I do a vegan marathon just because I can...even the bread. I just eat bananas to make up the fiber difference. My salt intake was really high during this experiment though. (Aug. 13, 2013)