Are Vegetarians better Global Citizens?

The horrible part about getting older is that we rarely can use the excuse, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know."  Yes, my dear compatriots, general aging has an inflated price-tag these days, but diet appears to be the biggest bully of all.

Juliet Schor, a sociology professor at Boston College and also co-chairwoman of the Center for a New American Dream, suggests we consider doing as she does.  Go meatless.   (She still eats eggs incidentally.)  Maybe we should listen to her voice of reason.  After all, as intent as many sincere Americans are on reducing climate change, the majority of us continue to ignore a source responsible for 18% of all global greenhouse gas emissions while it further pollutes and destroys arable land.

If you are interested in being convinced, Professor Schor penned an interesting opinion as part of the stream titled, "Toilet Paper and Other Moral Choices" in the New York Times.  http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/toilet-paper-and-other-moral-choices/.  She presents a very compelling argument to all of us.  How much do we really care about the earth and the future of our children and grandchildren?

Truthfully I feel like I have been suffering enough guilt, but who knew it was morally repugnant to use the fluffy kind of paper (as opposed to the scratchy kind)?  Or as Sheryl Crow infamously suggested, paraphrasing here, "piggishness is using more than a piece".  Anyway, Professor Schor makes a compelling case for changing one's thinking as well as one's dietary emphasis.

She wrote, "If the average American were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent, that would be the equivalent of switching from driving a Camry to a Prius."

As we all know, nobody can get financing on a Prius or any other car for that matter, so why not go greener this way?  Americans in this last century have lived through all kinds of economies, but the majority of the world would still see us as privileged.  I say, do we need some sort of financial meltdown, with stocks going into the toilet and jobs swirling down after them to bring us to our knees on this issue? Oh, yeah, that's already happened.

Well, if so, perhaps vegetarianism or some sort of meatless eating can finally come into vogue.

Americans grew 'Victory' garden veggie plots during the World War II to demonstrate their patriotism and combat food shortages.  Most of our resources were devoted to  supplying our troops in combat and making munitions.  I still rue the day patriotic ladies began shaving their legs, as silk and nylon materials were needed for things like parachutes.  (Could this have been the beginning of the demise of the sensual delight of natural body hair?  Okay, that's another long post for another day.)

This past year these Victory gardens were revived by volunteers in San Francisco for a different purpose.  Our dear young friend, Sarah Rich, who is also a mover and shaker at Dwell magazine, was a participant and wrote an interesting piece about the experience.  http://civileats.com/2008/06/13/slow-food-nation-victory-garden-planting-july-12/

Can any of you remember your mothers making any of the delicious vegetarian recipes we now take for granted as part of our American cuisine?  Perhaps being raised by parents who grew up during the depression or raising a family after WWII made eating meat seem as if it was a right, rather than a privilege.

What 'modern' woman wanted to bother with all the preparation required for eggplant parmigian when she could throw a ham into the oven?  Certainly not my mine.  If there was cabbage, there were spareribs.  Mashed potatoes required roast beef.  She roasted two chickens, not one, but in her defense, she always served two vegetables and a salad.  She would not eat meat unless it was essentially charcoal and my father liked his rare.  Now I realize that no dependent wife of her era would have dared to cater to her own tastes.

Luckily my mother observed the Roman Catholic ban on meat on Fridays, even after it was lifted, or I think every artery in my body would have clogged by puberty.  Of course, the culture-of-plenty that was a reaction to those tough years allowed our eating habits to be corrupted.

The agrarian lifestyle most families had enjoyed was quickly replaced by the emergence of suburbia. Gardening became a quaint hobby practiced by old English ladies, poor people and '50's nuclear survivalists.  As an interesting aside here, gardening has been the leading hobby of 'techies' for many, many years, a living testament to the ability of the human spirit to seek balance in life.

For most of us living today, suburbs are as American as apple pie, and provide plenty of space for a veggie patch.  Although the word itself derives from Middle English 'suburbe' and the old Latin root 'suburbium', less than a century ago this word had to be be added to the dictionary.  People lived in the city or the country; there were no suburban environs in between.  (I read about this 'suburb' subject in my son's research notes for his up-coming book, Inventing Green, in which he talks about the old days and the emerging history of green technology.  It has some fascinating history in it for those of you who enjoy having interesting comments with which to impress your friends so I've added the link.:)  http://alexismadrigal.wordpress.com/

Many people still think vegetarian food is tasteless, unfiling, etc., but these people haven't really lived.  Have you ever taste a Mexican specialty, chiles rellenos, which are stuffed with cheese or other assorted goodies including fruit and vegetables?  Or what about Italian linquini, smothered in a tomato-basil-garlic sauce?  And let's not forget spinach paneer or another vegetarian Indian dish that is loaded with cashews and vegetables - like bottle gourds, impossible to grow in the soggy northwest - floating in some sort of thick tomato-cream sauce.  That dish makes me want to kiss the chef, even in front of my husband.

Here's a link to my daughter's blog, by the way, which has some of these traditional recipes totally and unequivocally upgraded, including some of her Asian-Mexican fusion ideas.  Her latest I would describe as 'cocaine for the tongue'. http://easyeatinggreen.blogspot.com/2009/03/mexican-pad-thai-w-cilantro-lime-slaw.html

I'm not proposing, of course, that anyone converts overnight, as we don't need a short term, interim effort that will evaporate by Christmas when the beef Wellington is served.  Most people would probably not get enough complete protein without a little more information anyway, like learning to combine foods like beans and rice to get all the essential amino acids.  It is just that I have to agree Dr. Schor makes so much sense.

A little bit of recovery is better than nothing.   It is easier to set smaller, realistic goals, particularly if we want lasting, long-term success.  Might we not ask ourselves how difficult it could be to substitute soy-based 'bacon' bits in our spinach salad and still retain the enjoyment? Okay, so if you are going to be difficult, here is my solution:

Add two tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce to a bottle of Good Seasons Italian-style dressing.  Heat the dressing uncovered in a microwave safe container for no more than 55 seconds on high.  The container will be hot, so using potholders, remove and pour a little dressing over those soy-bits.  While they are soaking, pour the remainder of the dressing over the spinach (and mushrooms if you have them) and wilt the whole thing slightly.  Then toss in the soy bits, cherry tomatoes and whatever else you like and toss completely.  You won't miss the bacon, I swear.

Candidly, most Americans could use some diet reform.  We know we eat the wrong foods, and that old model food pyramid expanded everything but our wallets.  There is also a lot of public land - including under power lines and near rivers and streams - on which ranchers have been given permission to range.  They were supposed to be but effectively are under no enforcement or obligation to restore that land once their animals move on to the next one.  Unfortunately, ranged land has little use for years except to be range land.

There is plenty of anecdotal information from environmentalists about ranchers who ignore the ecological rules about maintaining water buffers, etc..  Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing how much abuse there is or if their estimates are accurate, as there is little true oversight.  (President Obama... would more inspectors or restoration efforts qualify as 'shovel ready'?  I'm sure boots would be needed.)  Jobs are jobs.

Of course, there are lots of selfish reasons to cut down on meat consumption as meat is expensive.  Pork and beef consumption contribute to dietary cholesterol problems in some people and even kidney stones can be formed from excessive uric acid, a by-product of digested meat.  Then there are the bile acids that are often associated with predisposing one to some forms of colon cancer and the difficulty older people can have processing it through their systems without tearing things up on the way.

Okay, so I love a thick, medium-rare steak sprinkled with a tablespoon or two of blue cheese or butter as much as the next American, and I have no desire to see our ranchers lose their jobs either, but can we be honest here?  Wouldn't at least a portion of the 30% of the world's non-ice covered land now devoted to meat production be more useful if converted to other forestry, food-growing or more sustainable endeavors?  It has to make one wonder.

Humans need adequate amounts of protein in order to flourish, of course, but looking at the world population we may be flourishing a bit too well these days.  To improve our personal health, my husband and I have been eating meatless meals at least three times a week, with a goal of four.  (Shhhhh.  He doesn't know yet.:)  Honestly?  It has not been that difficult and it certainly has seemed relatively painless.  But then, I do take after my mother in some ways.  I have her love of attention, a toned down version of her personality and I love me some vegetables.

Okay, so even there I am learning to be conscientious before throwing cheese or butter on my broccoli.  If I just have to have butter on something, I melt the butter and mix it with an equal amount of olive oil.

Here's a scrumptious dipping recipe for bread to serve in lieu of that butter dish:

One part olive oil to two parts balsamic vinegar and after adding a pinch of one or more of the following, mix well:

Hot pepper flakes, oregano, sweet basil, rosemary

Listen, I'd like to stick around and beat this subject mercilessly into the ground, but suddenly I feel ravenously hungry.  A nice bowl of hot and sour soup sounds delicious and maybe some of that leftover teriyaki tofu I made the other night with a scoop of jasmine rice on the side.  Bon apetit!