The enlightened diet

My path to a meat free diet has been long. I grew up on a farm where we raised much of our own food, including beef and chicken. Ours was a hobby farm that my Grandfather bought in the 1940’s (probably to relive his overly romanticized childhood) and was not our main source of income. However, it was still a working dairy farm and my playground as a kid and animal lover.

Our farm animals were both treated well and well loved. For that reason, I never gave much thought to modern day farming until I became pregnant with my daughter and began to obsess about what I would allow into my body, and the bodies of family.

As I educated myself I switched to organic and free-range. For me it was a slow leaning toward vegetarianism, slowly cutting out meat strictly for health reasons. At that time I was still under the delusion that all farms were like ours. I had no moral motivation.

At a certain point in my personal development I intensely desired a big leap in my growth. I wanted to take myself to a new higher level, mentally, physically, and spiritually. It was Kathy Freston’s book Quantum Wellness that was the tipping point for me.

She clearly outlines three compelling reasons for not eating meat:

1.     Physical health – I read about the adverse health effects of sugar, caffeine, gluten, alcohol, and last but not least, animal products.

2.     Environmental impact – I read compelling facts about the amount of grain and water needed to produce even small amounts of edible meat. Grain and water that would be better allocated to starving people in the developing world. Additionally the greenhouse gas produced from so much farming, “A UN report says that almost a fifth of emissions that contribute to global warming come from livestock, including chickens, pigs and sheep, in addition to cattle”. (Quantum Wellness p. 114)

3.     And finally, I read about the absolute horrors of modern day factory farming. We’ve all heard of mad cow disease, which is the result of feeding herbivores a diet of animal byproducts, (disgusting!) and hopefully we’ve all heard about the incredibly abusive ways in which chickens and other animals are raised for our consumption.

Diving into veganism

Last night I told a friend that if someone told me a year ago that I’d become a vegan, I wouldn’t have believed them. Just a little over a month ago, I was eating cheese, yogurt, eggs, chicken and fish regularly, and red meat on a less frequent basis.

But this past October, I read something that made me reconsider the way I eat. Specifically, it was an excerpt from Jonathan Safran-Foer's book Eating Animals. His widely recognized assertion that animal agriculture is responsible for more environmental devastation than any other factor made me basically sit up and take notice.

I do consider myself an environmentalist. I drive a hybrid car, I recycle everything, I try to be thoughtful about what I purchase and how I consume. Except I hadn’t yet made the connection, or more aptly, the disconnection - between continuing to eat animal products (even though I was eating mostly organic) and helping to repair or stop the destruction of the environment. Until that article. At that point, I started to investigate things a little further.

I discovered that turkeys raised for meat (and poultry altogether) are one of the least humanely treated animals and are also extremely dissimilar from their natural genetic form. I insisted that my family get a free-range, organic, “heritage” turkey for Thanksgiving. But honestly, I felt a little bad and guilty about eating the turkey on Thanksgiving. I didn’t wholeheartedly enjoy it.