Am I A Vegetarian?
Jul 13th
(this is the 4th post in my systematic living series)
See all that grass behind me? That's how I roll...
In the Fall of 2008 my eating started to change pretty dramatically. Mostly it was due to some wakeup calls by all the clichely referenced authors of my generation (Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle, Eric Schlosser, Mark Bittman, et al) where I realized that, as Jamie Oliver puts it: “We demand the best of everything from our beer selection to our running shoes, but we’ll put just about anything in our mouths”. We have such high standards for things that don’t matter, yet we never think about what we’re putting in our bodies to be our fuel and, literally, our biological makeup. So, one day last Autumn…I started paying attention.
Now, when I talk about “paying attention” I, of course, mean paying attention to the quality of food that I’m eating, the amount of processing that happened before it went down my gullet, and the actual ingredients that went into making what I was eating (as a side note, it’s it strange that foods we buy have “ingredients”? That tells you how little we prepare our own foods anymore. Ingredients means you’re trusting someone else to prepare your food for you….ok, tangent over)
However, thinking about what made up the food I ate wasn’t limited to the ingredients. Every single food item we purchase has massive political, social, ethical, and even religious implications. (Do you think I’m overstating it? If so, spend some weeks reading Omnivore’s Dilemma, Fast Food Nation, or go see Food Inc. and then let’s talk.) It’s not all about the food…it’s also about the way the food was made, who made it, how they were treated and compensated..and it’s also about how the FOOD was treated before it became food.
I’m no bleeding heart…but I do have a responsible conscience. I also have a faith that presides over all of these decisions, which is why, to all outsiders, it looks like I’m a vegetarian.
Years ago when I was having some tattoo work done, the artist and I spent lots of time talking. He was a vegan and I was a Christian and we were both interested in each other’s views on the world. One question he asked that stuck with me to this day was “Why aren’t there more Christian vegetarians? Afterall, that’s the way your Bible says God originally made us, before original sin”. Bam. There it was. My first exposure to faith and food issues intersecting.
Years later, this question still haunts me. Not just because this is “the way it was in the beginning”, but for a more pressing reason: This is God’s planet…people are God’s people…animals are God’s animals and, to put it bluntly, our food system (and therefore us, as consumers) treat all of them like shit.
I can’t possibly describe the conditions that the laborers experience in animal processing industry, but I can assure you: It’s degrading, neglectful, and very, very dangerous. These are God’s people and when I support the company that treats them like this, I’m responsible. Then, there’s the animals. They are packed into areas where they stand knee high in their own crap for months on end. They aren’t allowed to move so they get fatter quicker. They get sick because of how they’re treated and fed and then we shoot them up with drugs so they’ll last just long enough so we can kill them in a pretty inhumane way. These are God’s animals and when I support the company that treats them like this, I’m responsible. At the risk of sounding like a hippie, I’ll also point out that our industrial food system is destroying the planet with it’s monoculture, massive amounts of fertilizer, and total neglect for soil health. And yes, if I buy from those companies, I’m responsbile for that too.
So how does all this lead to my title-question? People see how I eat and they assume I’m a vegetarian. When they ask why I eat this way, they don’t really want the full answer because it makes them feel like I’m judging them (which, truly, I’m not…not everyone should be expected to come to the same conclusions just because I have). So I respond with the easy answer: I simply tell them “Yes, I’m a vegetarian.” But it’s not true.
I’m not someone who thinks meat is bad for us. On the contrary, I think it’s healthy. I think God made animals for our use…But, the kicker here is that I think that 99% of the meat available to us is irresponsible (and an insult to God and his creation) and I won’t eat it or support companies who make it. The ‘easy’ answer, the ’systematic’ answer is to become a raving judgmental and political vegetarian. But I refuse. That’s just buying into a different system..one that is equally unthiking and indiscriminate.
So, what’s the answer? It’s harder, but I believe it’s correct: You must think about every piece of food you put into your body. How was THIS food grown? How was THIS animal raised? What does it mean for my faith? What does it mean for my politics? If you think through this every time you put something in your mouth I can almost assure you that, in a short time, you’ll also find that the only option is to eat very differently than most of us do now. We might all look a whole lot more like vegetarians.
In practice, here’s what I’ve come to. I don’t think it’s systematic and I think it’s in line with the principals of my faith:
- I eat no factory produced meat (which is literally all meat you get anywhere except directly from a local farm)
- I eat as little processed food as possible. (anything in a box, bag, wrapper, or bottle is going to be processed)
- Generally (although not a hard and fast rule) I eat local meats only once a week. This is more of a personal preference since I actually enjoy eating mostly vegetarian.
- If I buy meat, I talk to the farmer face to face first. I ask about their farm, their animals, and I listen to their passion and love of their work. If they don’t love their animals and have a commitment to raising food how it was intended, I won’t buy it.
- When talking with the farmer, I try to build them up and encourage them. Imagine how hard it must be to be a small farmer fighting the enormous system that says you should be raising your animals feedlot style.
So, am I a vegetarian? Not really. Do I eat like one? Most of the time, I do. So, next time we have a discussion about this and you ask about my eating habits, don’t ask unless you really want to know the full story. If you want a short version that just writes me off as crazy so you don’t have to think about changing, don’t expect the truth. My answer to you will simply be: Yes. I’m a vegetarian.
Systematic Politics
Jun 29th
(this is the 3rd post in my systematic living series)
Hi. My name is Bob and I’m a recovering right-wing Republican.
If you knew me a handfull of years ago, you no doubt knew my politics. I talked about John Kerry like he was an idiot, I thought anyone who was pro-tax-increases was a communist, and I had a 8 foot wide George W. election sign in my front yard (which I replaced every time the neighborhood kids tore it down). I still think Kerry is an closer to an idiot than a saint, but lots of other things have changed over the past few years and my outlook on politics has changed, quite dramatically, with them.
You see, I’m a person of faith…a follower of Jesus. I used to think that the obvious outpouring of my faith was to be a Republican. I never really questioned that. I think I’m at least a quasi-smart and thinking man, so it’s not like I was being led there blindly. Many of the arguments and statements made by the party made lots of sense. I found reason after reason to support my right-wingedness and I could out-argue any Democrat I came in contact with. Then, one day, things started to change.
I hate to narrow this change down to a single moment because I think it had been a long time coming. But, to make a longer life-story shorter, when I started reading The Great Awakening by Jim Wallis I was a confident, learned Republican. I picked it up (without knowing who Wallis was or what the book was really about) because I was tired of the way the American church operated and the cover seemed like it addressed (and sympathized) with my current state of mind. As I read, I got angry. As I read further, I became furious. “How could someone be so stupid” I thought. “How could a Christian be so politically liberal?” But for some reason, I kept reading.
I realized by the end of the book that while my anger was directed at Wallis (the book’s author), it was actually more directed at myself. My way of thinking. My way of living. In the process of being so “right” (or Right), I was forgetting that there’s people behind those politics that Jesus loves and that Jesus cares about, regardless of their situation, their beliefs or their politics.
That’s when I started to see through the lies of the Republican Party. I never realized before how hateful Right wing politics had become. It totally neglects people for the benefit of The Free Market and lower taxes. It says “if you don’t work hard you deserve to be poor and miserable”. But guess what? Jesus doesn’t think so. Poor if it’s your doing, maybe…but miserable and living in deep dark despair? Absolutely not. I started to realize that even though the Christians I knew weren’t racist or sexist or thought the poor should suffer, they (and I) were supporting politics and policies that were exactly those things. So, I knew I had to move away from that Right Wing.
So, did I become a Democrat? Absolutely not. In my years as a Republican, I saw all the problems with the Democratic party…so that part didn’t take any research. I now understood why the Left Wing took many of it’s positions on issues (out of compassion for the poor, the minorities, those who are up against the world every day) and I agreed, in principal, with much of what they said. The problem was, it was still politics. It was still a game that they needed to win to stay in power. They still took advantage of the average American to stay in power, which in the end, was their goal much more than helping those in need.
So there I was. Searching for a systematic political structure to fit into. Systematic living was the easy choice when it came to politics but it was the wrong choice. I could be a Republican or a Democrat (or one of the many other fringe parties) but none of my choices were fully right. Politics (and the parties) could never be completely compatible with who Jesus wanted me to be.
These days I find that it’s really hard to willfully exist outside the political system (just as it’s always hard to exist outside of systematic living). My Republican friends think I’m a baby-killing Democrat and my Democratic friends think I’m a cold-hearted Republican. But this is where we all should be living. (I don’t usually presume that everyone should make the same choices I have, but I’m 99% sure that this is exactly where all people should be, or at the very least, where all Christians should be). I’ve clearly seen both sides and I truly believe much of what they say is right (while much is wrong), and I think that anyone who buys into either fully is an unthinking systematic pawn.
Every time I talk with a Christian Republican and I hear the party-line being spit back at me, all I can see is their ignorance. They’ve been hoodwinked by the Republican party into supporting Right Wing views because they’ve been convinced that it’s the “Christian party” to belong to. I don’t try and convince them otherwise, because I know that for me it truly took God’s intervention (through many experiences and one tough book) to help me see Truth. I couldn’t possibly presume that a few words from me could change any minds.
At the same time, every time I talk to a hard-core Democrat (Christian or otherwise) I know that they’ve been fooled into thinking that the Democratic party actually cares about the poor and the downtrodden. If they’re Christian, they’re often the “cool” Christian who thinks that being a Democrat makes Faith look “hip” to their Democratic posse, which is just as foolish as thinking tattoos or a pierced-nosed follower of Jesus will make Christianity seem less lame. I let them be as well…there’s no out-arguing ‘hip’. There’s no convincing them that Democratic leaders only really care about staying in power and are using the poor to keep themselves there.
Buying into any part of this system is counter to who Jesus wants me to be. Sure, we should vote. We should be involved in the political process (it’s our duty as a citizen) but the second we identify ourselves as a Democrat or Republican, we’ve lost. We’ve declared ourselves slaves to the systematic politcs that is so sick and clueless when it comes to real people and real issues.
So, next time you’re talking to me about politics, don’t expect me to take either side. I refuse. I’ll support the individual issues and people that seem like their the most competent to keep our country functional. So, I’ll see you at the voting booth, but know that I’ll be checking more than one big party-affiliated box on that voting form…I’ll have done my research and will be voting outside the system of brainless and easy politics.
