Becoming an Omnivore

It was an incredibly hot day, and three friends and I had gone to 6 Flags Magic Mountain on our shared day off. After one or two rides, we became hungry and settled on an ominous looking Mexican restaurant outside of Gotham City. Coincidentally, we all ordered a chicken burrito. And then everything started to go downhill...

As the day became hotter, we realized these burritos  were probably a little less than thoroughly cooked. I remember feeling progressively sicker, and this was compounded by the blistering summer heat in an overcrowded area of screaming children. I blame the feeling on the chicken burrito because all of us felt sick almost simultaneously with that same uneasiness in our stomachs.

So that was that. This chicken burrito, I decided, would be my last. I had been flirting with the idea of giving up meat altogether for quite some time, and this was the final straw. The processed meats preserved with sulfates, salts and Bog knows what else not only grossed me out but tended to trigger the migraines I was prone to. Add to this the fact I had just finished reading The Jungle for an English paper, and now was absolutely horrified at industrial manufacturing and meat processing. Call it the placebo effect if you will; but for me the burrito was a material confirmation of what I had been reading and thinking about. I no longer wanted to be a part of an exploitative, unhealthy and polluting food system; so I tried my best from there onwards not to be.

I abstained from meat for five years, and during this time I only found out new things that confirmed my position. Cramped factory farms and industrialized agriculture not only harmed animals, I learned, but also harmed the earth.  I didn't even miss meat, and I would find the same to be true for eggs and dairy products.  I tried my best to abstain from these as well, because I figured if I was not going to eat meat, why eat other animal byproducts? My reasoning went something like this: if you consume eggs, you are still consuming a part of the chicken. Similarly, if you consume milk, you are still consuming the cow in some respect. 

I never went full-fledged Vegan, but I definitely wasn't far off. I tended to cook mostly Vegan anyways, but every once in a while I would indulge in some pizza, a bean rice and cheese burrito, homemade cookies, those sorts of things.  I even got really good at cooking Vegan; and even better I became skilled in the elusive art of Vegan baking. All it takes really, is creativity, curiosity, and an open mind, I learned.

And then somewhere along the way, in no sudden or obvious fashion, my politics about food and the world began to change. If my abstinence from meat and other animal products focused on concern for the environment, humane conditions, and big business, who was I to eat tofu made of genetically modified soy beans imported under Free Trade agreements with, say, Brazil? How much smaller is my carbon footprint, really, if I continued to consume such items? Even more- if I was so concerned about humane conditions for the animals, why was I not more concerned with the welfare of the humans that produced this food? Yes, I was still quite firmly against most aspects of the meat and dairy industry, but I gradually grew more concerned with the conditions of farmers and laborers producing what I ate as a Vegetarian. 

Try to think about our food system as an hourglass: there are millions of farmers making hardly sustainable incomes who must sell their crop to an alarmingly small number of buyers and processers owned by a few large corporations. These corporations in turn make an incredible profit redistributing this food to millions of consumers at cheap prices.

Clearly this is unfair for about a million reasons I won't go into just here- but this idea played into my decision to reintegrate meat, eggs and dairy into my regular diet. The way I began to see it, locally produced, fresh, hopefully organic, free range and grass fed food items are more in line with my sensibilities than are items like the tofu I describe above. If I don’t want to support corporate industrialized agriculture, I don’t have to. And being a Vegetarian or even a Vegan doesn't necessarily guarantee this.

For me, one of the key items to pay attention to is just how I use my dollars to support food systems I am politically, ethically, or otherwise aligned with. I mean, this is capitalism after all, and the flow of capital is what counts. In our American version of democracy, one of the best ways to exercise your political compassions is to pay attention to where you put your dollars. We often feel powerless in this nation, as if our votes don't count and those who write policy are completely out of touch with our needs. But think of it this way: in our capitalist system, our dollars are our votes. Food is incredibly political, and it’s a decision we all make consistently at least 3 times a day. If we all begin to vote with our health, the environment, and local economies in mind, we will begin to see the affects soon enough.

For me, some free range chicken from a family farm two hours away is ultimately a healthier, more humane and more aware choice than some Vegetarian options that may be imported from who knows where. Additionally, the former choice supports a domestic local economy, as opposed to a multinational corporation that doesn't care for the environment or the laborers it employs. I don't mean to knock all you Vegetarians and Vegans out there, I understand and truly sympathize with your perspective. And to tell the truth, I will continue to consume soy products; but the important thing now for me to consider is where the soy originated from.

So. In principle is there really anything that horrible about eating meat? I mean, we out competed Neanderthals and got these big brains somehow- and a protein rich diet had something to do with it! I’m not saying I’ve done a 180 and disagree with Vegetarianism now, I’ll still take a black bean patty over a beef one any day of the week, but what I mean to say is that indiscriminately abstaining from meat will no longer suffice to communicate my perspective.  My political and ethical views on food have changed appreciably since I was 17, and although they are not entirely different in effect, they are now quite different in shape from my early days as a young anarchist.

-H. BOMB