I can see light at the end of the long, dark February tunnel, and I had been thinking about what's going to happen to my diet next month - and thinking how much more convenient it is to pick up some chicken or beef for dinner rather than thinking about beans and tofu. However, I just read both of these articles from today's Guardian:
Chickens:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/22/jonathan-safran-foer-factory-farming
Cows:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/22/jonathan-safran-foer-cows-beef
Hmmmmm.
p.s. there's now a little sign up in the Engineering Faculty canteen "soya milk available, please ask". Awwww.
Monday, 22 February 2010
Sunday, 21 February 2010
Haste makes waste
Hello Friends,
I am bad at planning, this leads to bad veggie outcomes:
In the interest of integrity and my own guilty conscience, I have to admit that I hate some meat the past week. (Insert: boo's, hisses, and throwing of tomatoes or hunks of cow flesh for my non-vegetarian haters)
1. I flew to San Francisco, CA for a week and forgot to pre-book vegetarian. The choice was throw the chicken piece away or eat it, I ate it. Second meal I had a choice with no meat, I took it. The really shitty chicken was not at all enjoyable, so I couldn't decide if I felt worse because of that (breaking the vegetarian thing for the worst meal ever, Virgin Atlantic is not all that great) or better (I didn't enjoy breaking the veggie thing).
2. In San Fran, I was at an amazing restaurant with my parents and brother that is owned by the husband of my former boss...it is awesome, you have to go when in the Bay Area, and you have to make reservations as well as it is only opened on the weekend and can only hold maybe 20 people max. Anyway, the point was it's hard to order the eggplant parm when you have the option of his specialty creole crawfish pasta, seafood etouffee, grilled Hawaiian fish that he has flown in daily from a fisherman friend there, or you get the picture (disclaimer: I see he is doing an exotic mushroom risotto this week, but I promise that wasn't an option when I was there---menu changes every week). Knowing the Hawaiian fish might be hard to justify, I went with his standard creole crawfish pasta. It was exquisite.
This brings me to the part where I suck at planning...
3. I came back to find that I forgot to use up my mushrooms and tomatoes before I left. So I threw away a whole pack of both as mold was growing on the mushrooms and the tomatoes looked pretty awful. That got me thinking that throwing away food may be worse than eating meat. This website has some useful facts and figures: http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com (If we all stop wasting food that could have been eaten, the CO2 impact would be the equivalent of taking 1 in 4 cars off the road.)
The whole rotten food thing brings me to point 4....
4. So it is Sunday and since the UK has some crazy law about making sure everyone is completely inconvenienced on Sunday, groceries stores (e.g. my local Sainsburry's) are only open from 11am to 5pm for instance. I wake up at 9am, too early to go shopping for the day so I start working at my computer...day passes....make some phone calls....pretty soon it is 5:15pm I realize I haven't eaten since breakfast (bowl of cereal with roommates milk--don't tell him), and am now starving. Also given point 3, everything I had that wasn't dry or canned is rotten or used before I left. So I mix together some lentils, kidney beans, onions, and started cooking....OK I also have to admit that I have been keeping weird hours lately, only had lunch on Saturday followed by beer for dinner and late night chips.....so I was feeling bad and more and more hungry....I spied the canned tuna I bought over a month ago. Well I assume you know what happened. I ate another animal, but do fish have feelings? The can said it was caught by pole and line and apparently tuna like it better when they die that way instead of being caught in a huge net :). OK so I need to look up carbon footprints for Tuna and for Crawfish, cause I really enjoy eating seafood.
Just bought: The unnatural history of the sea By Callum Roberts on Amazon to make myself do something about all this.
Cheers,
CpO
I am bad at planning, this leads to bad veggie outcomes:
In the interest of integrity and my own guilty conscience, I have to admit that I hate some meat the past week. (Insert: boo's, hisses, and throwing of tomatoes or hunks of cow flesh for my non-vegetarian haters)
1. I flew to San Francisco, CA for a week and forgot to pre-book vegetarian. The choice was throw the chicken piece away or eat it, I ate it. Second meal I had a choice with no meat, I took it. The really shitty chicken was not at all enjoyable, so I couldn't decide if I felt worse because of that (breaking the vegetarian thing for the worst meal ever, Virgin Atlantic is not all that great) or better (I didn't enjoy breaking the veggie thing).
2. In San Fran, I was at an amazing restaurant with my parents and brother that is owned by the husband of my former boss...it is awesome, you have to go when in the Bay Area, and you have to make reservations as well as it is only opened on the weekend and can only hold maybe 20 people max. Anyway, the point was it's hard to order the eggplant parm when you have the option of his specialty creole crawfish pasta, seafood etouffee, grilled Hawaiian fish that he has flown in daily from a fisherman friend there, or you get the picture (disclaimer: I see he is doing an exotic mushroom risotto this week, but I promise that wasn't an option when I was there---menu changes every week). Knowing the Hawaiian fish might be hard to justify, I went with his standard creole crawfish pasta. It was exquisite.
This brings me to the part where I suck at planning...
3. I came back to find that I forgot to use up my mushrooms and tomatoes before I left. So I threw away a whole pack of both as mold was growing on the mushrooms and the tomatoes looked pretty awful. That got me thinking that throwing away food may be worse than eating meat. This website has some useful facts and figures: http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com (If we all stop wasting food that could have been eaten, the CO2 impact would be the equivalent of taking 1 in 4 cars off the road.)
The whole rotten food thing brings me to point 4....
4. So it is Sunday and since the UK has some crazy law about making sure everyone is completely inconvenienced on Sunday, groceries stores (e.g. my local Sainsburry's) are only open from 11am to 5pm for instance. I wake up at 9am, too early to go shopping for the day so I start working at my computer...day passes....make some phone calls....pretty soon it is 5:15pm I realize I haven't eaten since breakfast (bowl of cereal with roommates milk--don't tell him), and am now starving. Also given point 3, everything I had that wasn't dry or canned is rotten or used before I left. So I mix together some lentils, kidney beans, onions, and started cooking....OK I also have to admit that I have been keeping weird hours lately, only had lunch on Saturday followed by beer for dinner and late night chips.....so I was feeling bad and more and more hungry....I spied the canned tuna I bought over a month ago. Well I assume you know what happened. I ate another animal, but do fish have feelings? The can said it was caught by pole and line and apparently tuna like it better when they die that way instead of being caught in a huge net :). OK so I need to look up carbon footprints for Tuna and for Crawfish, cause I really enjoy eating seafood.
Just bought: The unnatural history of the sea By Callum Roberts on Amazon to make myself do something about all this.
Cheers,
CpO
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Day 16: Mmmmm waffle
I must apologise for uselessness on a number of levels. Firstly, lack of posting (went on holiday, hooray), and secondly, for breaking vegan-ness and knowingly and deliberately eating a very lovely chocolately waffle whilst on said holiday. I suppose at least it wasn't a kebab.
Vegan-ness has so far been ok mainly, and I think that has mostly been because I haven't minded it too much. However, spending 5 days in Amsterdam felt like this challenge lark was more of a sacrifice than it has been to date (especially with cereal bars, falafal and chips as the staple diet items). There were two main issues here:
1) We were eating out a lot in restaurants with very limited and fairly unappealing vegan options
2) I (slightly) resented the fact that I was taking time off and spending money to have a holiday, and that eating vegan food was making my holiday a bit more difficult.
Extending this thought to making changes in general - its easy to make a change when the difficulties aren't too challenging. When things become a little harder you can really see if you care enough to make the effort (...and I do suspect think that many vegetarians and vegans don't really have a particular desire to eat animals or animal products. There will be some, but how many vegetarians do you know who would really really want a nice rare bit of steak?).
So I think its important to consider changes in context for specific people. I went to conflict management training a couple of weeks back and they really hammered home how you really just can't understand how things feel to different people (for example, how saying "I know how you feel" in a conflict has the potential to very much irritate the person on the receiving end). So maybe more credit should be given to those (like Milos), who are finding this really difficult, but making an awesome effort.
Went to a lovely Japanese vegan restaurant near King's Cross station in London last night - one of the nicest meals I've had in months and you would even notice there's no meat - and it wasn't only me who thought this - with admission from the slightly suprised avowed meat-eater: "I'm glad you are a temporary vegan otherwise I would never ever have gone to that restaurant and it was really nice".
And I have to quote from their menu (we should get them to do the food for our final course dinner - the department would love this - 2 "sustainables" in as many sentences...):
If anyone has a spare hour at King's Cross I highly recommend hunting them down (see http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/669017)
Next post will be less rambly and more scientific.
I must apologise for uselessness on a number of levels. Firstly, lack of posting (went on holiday, hooray), and secondly, for breaking vegan-ness and knowingly and deliberately eating a very lovely chocolately waffle whilst on said holiday. I suppose at least it wasn't a kebab.
Vegan-ness has so far been ok mainly, and I think that has mostly been because I haven't minded it too much. However, spending 5 days in Amsterdam felt like this challenge lark was more of a sacrifice than it has been to date (especially with cereal bars, falafal and chips as the staple diet items). There were two main issues here:
1) We were eating out a lot in restaurants with very limited and fairly unappealing vegan options
2) I (slightly) resented the fact that I was taking time off and spending money to have a holiday, and that eating vegan food was making my holiday a bit more difficult.
Extending this thought to making changes in general - its easy to make a change when the difficulties aren't too challenging. When things become a little harder you can really see if you care enough to make the effort (...and I do suspect think that many vegetarians and vegans don't really have a particular desire to eat animals or animal products. There will be some, but how many vegetarians do you know who would really really want a nice rare bit of steak?).
So I think its important to consider changes in context for specific people. I went to conflict management training a couple of weeks back and they really hammered home how you really just can't understand how things feel to different people (for example, how saying "I know how you feel" in a conflict has the potential to very much irritate the person on the receiving end). So maybe more credit should be given to those (like Milos), who are finding this really difficult, but making an awesome effort.
Went to a lovely Japanese vegan restaurant near King's Cross station in London last night - one of the nicest meals I've had in months and you would even notice there's no meat - and it wasn't only me who thought this - with admission from the slightly suprised avowed meat-eater: "I'm glad you are a temporary vegan otherwise I would never ever have gone to that restaurant and it was really nice".
And I have to quote from their menu (we should get them to do the food for our final course dinner - the department would love this - 2 "sustainables" in as many sentences...):
"...the Itadaki-zen restaurant was born from the need to provide a source of food which integrates into a cycle of sustainability. The goal is to reach a state in which the restaurant can self-produce methods which are themselves sustainable for the wider ecosystem..."
If anyone has a spare hour at King's Cross I highly recommend hunting them down (see http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/669017)
Next post will be less rambly and more scientific.
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Day 10: Cheese, Wine and Carbon Trading
Two slightly distressing things occurred since I last posted:
1) I tried vegan cheese. It was absolutely vile. To be fair, it was a cheese sauce rather than solid "cheese", but it was not nice.
2) In a crowded London bar, clutching Fran's drinks crib sheet in my hot hand, it emerged that the bar didn't sell any beer or cider (didn't even try wine) that was vegan-safe. So I went for the safe option - vodka and juice. London prices mean that this is not a sustainable option for anyone's bank balance (it must have been almost £7), and I believe is highly unfairly discriminating against vegans.
But two nice things have balanced them out:
1) In the engineering canteen today, merrily helping myself to the free coffee (there's free morning coffee in Engineering, apparently someone left it to the department in his will, since engineers need caffeine to do useful things), the lovely lady in the canteen approached, and asked if I was the "soya milk girl". Last week, I had enquired about soya milk since they don't stock it, and they thought it might be possible - but they had remember, and were very happy about it. So if anyone's using the canteen, just request the soya milk! (its hiding in the fridge so as not to confuse people)
2) A few more people have joined in now as well, which is really nice. General morale seems fairly high, particularly once you take Milos out of the equation...(sorry). Fran's mother and sister are taking part, and also Florence's friend Katy, who I then coincidentally met in a pub, and she informed me that the health shop does chocolate vegan spread. Small things.
My last post looked at how changing your diet could save enough carbon to be on an equivalent scale to taking international flights. This is still true, but thinking about it further, it makes me feel a little unconfortable - that by reducing your impact in one area, you're effectively "free" to increase it in another. The morality of this has been an argument used against carbon trading schemes, and this website, cheatneutral.com (whilst a little bit irritating) highlights this point.
There's been quite a bit of discussion over why wine isn't actually vegan. So...as you might expect, its because many wines are made using animal-derived ingredients to assist in the wine processing. Mostly, these ingredients are filtered out of the wine before its sold, but the use of animal ingredients in the creation make them "unsuitable for vegans". Typically these ingredients are used as processing aids in the filtration part of the winemaking process to help remove solid impurities (e.g. grape skins, stems, pips), to remove the yeast used in the fermentation process or to adjust the tannin levels. The most common animal ingredients used are isinglass (a very pure form of gelatine from sturgeon fish bladders), gelatine (extract from boiled cow's or pig's hooves and sinews), egg whites (or albumin) and caseins (a protein from milk). Also very occasionally blood has been used as an additive, but this was declared illegal for use in European wines in the aftermath of the outbreak of BSE (mad cow disease).
(thanks to Vegan Wine Guide FAQ, http://vegans.frommars.org/wine/faq.php)
1) I tried vegan cheese. It was absolutely vile. To be fair, it was a cheese sauce rather than solid "cheese", but it was not nice.
2) In a crowded London bar, clutching Fran's drinks crib sheet in my hot hand, it emerged that the bar didn't sell any beer or cider (didn't even try wine) that was vegan-safe. So I went for the safe option - vodka and juice. London prices mean that this is not a sustainable option for anyone's bank balance (it must have been almost £7), and I believe is highly unfairly discriminating against vegans.
But two nice things have balanced them out:
1) In the engineering canteen today, merrily helping myself to the free coffee (there's free morning coffee in Engineering, apparently someone left it to the department in his will, since engineers need caffeine to do useful things), the lovely lady in the canteen approached, and asked if I was the "soya milk girl". Last week, I had enquired about soya milk since they don't stock it, and they thought it might be possible - but they had remember, and were very happy about it. So if anyone's using the canteen, just request the soya milk! (its hiding in the fridge so as not to confuse people)
2) A few more people have joined in now as well, which is really nice. General morale seems fairly high, particularly once you take Milos out of the equation...(sorry). Fran's mother and sister are taking part, and also Florence's friend Katy, who I then coincidentally met in a pub, and she informed me that the health shop does chocolate vegan spread. Small things.
My last post looked at how changing your diet could save enough carbon to be on an equivalent scale to taking international flights. This is still true, but thinking about it further, it makes me feel a little unconfortable - that by reducing your impact in one area, you're effectively "free" to increase it in another. The morality of this has been an argument used against carbon trading schemes, and this website, cheatneutral.com (whilst a little bit irritating) highlights this point.
There's been quite a bit of discussion over why wine isn't actually vegan. So...as you might expect, its because many wines are made using animal-derived ingredients to assist in the wine processing. Mostly, these ingredients are filtered out of the wine before its sold, but the use of animal ingredients in the creation make them "unsuitable for vegans". Typically these ingredients are used as processing aids in the filtration part of the winemaking process to help remove solid impurities (e.g. grape skins, stems, pips), to remove the yeast used in the fermentation process or to adjust the tannin levels. The most common animal ingredients used are isinglass (a very pure form of gelatine from sturgeon fish bladders), gelatine (extract from boiled cow's or pig's hooves and sinews), egg whites (or albumin) and caseins (a protein from milk). Also very occasionally blood has been used as an additive, but this was declared illegal for use in European wines in the aftermath of the outbreak of BSE (mad cow disease).
(thanks to Vegan Wine Guide FAQ, http://vegans.frommars.org/wine/faq.php)
Monday, 8 February 2010
Week one of being vegetarian - a carnivore's point of view
The day five of being vegetarian: I went to Downing college for lunch, and when seeing the food there exclaimed:
- Oh, damn, but I am a vegetarian!
- They serve vegetarian food. replied my friend to my disappointed cry.
- Sure they do. I am not afraid that there is no food for vegetarians here. I just realized that I have to eat it.
As you can tell, I didn’t really think the “being vegetarian during February Project” through. Being vegetarian in Cambridge seemed so easy: Colleges serve vegetarian option (I’ll get back to this one later), there are cafes with snacks around, fruits and yoghurts are everywhere… Hey, I’ll eat healthy and do my bit in “saving the world”. How naïve was I…
First problem occurred on the day one: I ate fish. “Vegetarians eat fish” was what I heard before, and why I went for it. Well, it seems they don’t. So I messed things up the very first day, with unsustainably fished peace of animal meat (when I phrase it like this, it is clear why eating fish is not acceptable, damn!).
Problems went on: every day, I would take the vegetarian option for lunch, a soup, potatoes/rice/corn, vegetable salad, a bun, a cake and a cup of coffee after. Within two hours I would become hungry as a wolf! So I would go for tomato and cheese sandwich. It would not deceive the constant sense of throbbing hunger even for 20 minutes… So I would munch on fruits, and junk biscuits until the vegetarian option dinner in the College. Only the fact that there was chocolate always around would enable me to bridge the hunger gap between that dinner and going to bed…
And what kind of food do I eat: I can be critical about the fat layer of melted cheese on the vegetarian options, but I know that it is what keeps me alive. All that pasta, deep-fried potatoes and cooked anemic vegetables… The industrial mash of … well something that is called “veggie burger”. Even I know that it is not healthy. It is just meat-free. And meat per se is not bad… So, there will actually be no health benefit for me out of this, I assume. I may mess up my blood levels of iron, gain/loose weight (am not really keen on any of these outcomes), and will be in perpetual state of grumpiness and somatically felt but obviously mentally induced sense of perpetual hunger. All in the month of lent bumps when I get to have at least 3 outings on the river (yap, getting up around 6 am), while successfully avoiding ergs and running.
So why am I doing this? What am I trying to do, and why don’t I just quit?
First, I need a personal change related to sustainability and vegetarianism is perfect for this. Second, I need a real change and for me not eating meat is the real change. I enjoy meat-based food, and actually have to remind myself that “if the host didn’t serve meet, it is not because s/he wants to insult, it is because some cultures consider meat free lunch perfectly culturally acceptable even outside times of wars and famine”. And third, I always had this attitude that mind is stronger than the body, and that if we want we can control the cravings for something as ephemeral and materialistic as a peace of meat on a plate (i.e. bloody, medium raw steak… or chicken white meat, made with potatoes that are soaked in roast juices, and covered in gorgonzola sauce…ok, I’ll stop).
Moreover, in theory I am a vegetarian/vegan a couple of days every year. For traditional/religious reasons on the Christmas Eve day, Easter Friday, the day of Saint Lazarus and two more Days of the Cross (that I, to be honest, usually forget) I fast by not eating anything made of animal, with fish being the only exception. So it means no meat (except fish sometimes), but also no milk or dairy products (cheese, yoghurts), no eggs, no chocolate (has milk), no pastry (has butter/milk/eggs), and so on… I exert this little exercise of “I can do it”, and yes I can do it but only for a day!
So becoming a vegetarian was not an uncharted theory completely… But, I was only doing it for a day, and when one does it from (pseudo)religious beliefs it is completely different since the whole point is different. It is not mainly for eating healthier, and it is not for reducing carbon footprint in production of food we consume. Oh no. It is to remind ourselves that “the Kingdom of Earth is of little”, that we are just passing by through this Valley of tears on our way to eternal life somewhere else, and that physical enjoyment, food in particular, is just a sinful deception that makes us connected to this world, while we should be preparing ourselves for the other.
During those days, if I wish I could eat meat, I realize that my spirit is meek, my Christian faith non-existent, but I endure since the whole point is not “to enjoy it”. On the contrary!
Whereas in vegetarianism some say that you can actually enjoy it! And people also tell me that “if I tried “real” vegetarian food I would love it!” What is “real vegetarian food”? Why is what we have served in the hall “a real non-vegetarian” but not the “real vegetarian” food? And I am pretty sure that if they (my vegetarian friends) tried a sustainable grown chicken that run around fields and ate worms and grass (and not industrial concentrate), prepared with care and with organic ingredients they would love it, too!
My non-vegetarian friends like to point out how all the vegetarian options I eat are not sustainable sourced, probably not healthy, and that fish is not allowed for vegetarians (my massive fail) so my whole personal change project is flawed in its execution and ethical foundation. I remind them that although some of those things are true it is still less carbon intensive that what they eat, could be as healthy or even more, and that I at least am making an effort, and am at least doing something, which is far more worthy than doing nothing and making sly comments (just for fun) to someone on verge of quitting. But than I realise it is hunger and grumpiness speaking out of me, so I stop and apologise myself…
Tomorrow I get to cook for myself… Will I be better than College in making vegetarian food? I have no idea. And I have no idea how vegetarians suppers go with huge amounts of alcohol, but I will find out that one this evening. Will keep you posted.
And I am not quitting yet!
Saturday, 6 February 2010
Apocalypse Paintball Vegetarians
So I went to play paintball for the first time today just outside of Cambridge. The actual experience is an entirely different story (glasses and foggy goggles are not conducive to winning, and I begin to appreciate---though could never fully understand of course---the mental mind f-blow that must happen when you are in trench with real guns). However, after three hours lunch time rolled around. "Lunch" was included in the deal.
"Lunch" consisted of a staff member running to Tescos and buying a bunch of 1pound sandwiches and crisps and donuts---hence the quotes. Every sandwich had meat. I was starving. It was a difficult moment. Luckily I am somewhat snobbish regardless and wouldn't be inclined to eat a 1pound sausage and egg sandwich or cheap ham and cheese anyway (any wild caught smoked salmon, rocket, capers, and creamcheese sandwiches or wraps?). Anyway, I knew I would have to be "that guy" who complained or just eat some extra donuts and crisps which seemed quite unhealthy.
Then I had a moment. a bond. a spark. There was another vegetarian! Out of the unsustainable herd a beacon of all that is good shone through!!! OK, so it wasn't quite that dramatic, but its so funny how not eating meat can lead to a discussion point and something to bond over. It was also successful. We went up to the staff and mentioned it. A woman who was a regular there (the regulars, besides this woman, were interesting to say the least---note to self: never become passionate about a sport centered around shooting people) offered to run to Tesco and buy some more sandwiches. So in the end I ended up with this nice roasted red pepper, rocket , and creamcheese sandwich. It was twice as expensive as the other ones, but it was great. The other vegetarian and I smiled and enjoyed the sweet taste of moral superiority. (mostly joking, but I do like the little holier-than-thou aura of it all, can't imagine what it feels like to be vegan :P )
It also got me thinking how cheap industrial food is. This article also brought up the issue again when I got home. Maybe the issue isn't so much meat or not, but how it is produced.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/06/nyregion/06metjournal.html
There was also a free range chicken farm on the walk back to the train station from the paintball place. A few thoughts: 1. herds of chickens look ridiculous, 2. do they have chicken-dogs to coral them?, 3. free-range uses a lot more land (need to do some calcs on that one).
Cheers,
CpO
"Lunch" consisted of a staff member running to Tescos and buying a bunch of 1pound sandwiches and crisps and donuts---hence the quotes. Every sandwich had meat. I was starving. It was a difficult moment. Luckily I am somewhat snobbish regardless and wouldn't be inclined to eat a 1pound sausage and egg sandwich or cheap ham and cheese anyway (any wild caught smoked salmon, rocket, capers, and creamcheese sandwiches or wraps?). Anyway, I knew I would have to be "that guy" who complained or just eat some extra donuts and crisps which seemed quite unhealthy.
Then I had a moment. a bond. a spark. There was another vegetarian! Out of the unsustainable herd a beacon of all that is good shone through!!! OK, so it wasn't quite that dramatic, but its so funny how not eating meat can lead to a discussion point and something to bond over. It was also successful. We went up to the staff and mentioned it. A woman who was a regular there (the regulars, besides this woman, were interesting to say the least---note to self: never become passionate about a sport centered around shooting people) offered to run to Tesco and buy some more sandwiches. So in the end I ended up with this nice roasted red pepper, rocket , and creamcheese sandwich. It was twice as expensive as the other ones, but it was great. The other vegetarian and I smiled and enjoyed the sweet taste of moral superiority. (mostly joking, but I do like the little holier-than-thou aura of it all, can't imagine what it feels like to be vegan :P )
It also got me thinking how cheap industrial food is. This article also brought up the issue again when I got home. Maybe the issue isn't so much meat or not, but how it is produced.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/06/nyregion/06metjournal.html
There was also a free range chicken farm on the walk back to the train station from the paintball place. A few thoughts: 1. herds of chickens look ridiculous, 2. do they have chicken-dogs to coral them?, 3. free-range uses a lot more land (need to do some calcs on that one).
Cheers,
CpO
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Four days down...
So, a few cups of black tea down (I tried adding soya milk but I just find it too sickly!) and vegan life is going well. Aside from the frustrations I found when doing this last year for a month (like when you are REALLY hungry and you’re out and about - trying to find a vegan snack which doesn’t require cooking or some form of preparation and isn’t bread, houmous or fruit is pretty hard!), I am actually quite enjoying it!
Apart from not eating all the non-vegan foods, it has made me think about the impacts of other areas of my life – not using the car when I don’t need to, and do I really need that bar of chocolate that I would usually convince myself was necessary? Probably not. A bit of self-constraint and taking the time to think things through is actually very enlightening.
Then the element of people asking you why is also interesting (though I really wish I knew more facts to back up my potentially ungrounded assumptions...) – I’ve just been grilled by my dad as to why veganism is any better than vegetarianism, and why fish is not acceptable, how importing specialist vegan foods would be ‘better’ than eating locally produced meat (or the example he used being ‘if we had chickens in our garden’) and so on and so on. I definitely need to find out more to be able to answer these questions well! So thanks Hayley for your latest post about the flights – very helpful. Any other such posts are more than welcome and I’ll try and add some myself!
The way I’ve defended it so far is that veganism is just one way to lead a more sustainable life, but obviously it doesn’t solve everything and, were I to make a permanent lifestyle change I would definitely want to look into other options to convince myself that I had chosen then most impactful option.
Apart from not eating all the non-vegan foods, it has made me think about the impacts of other areas of my life – not using the car when I don’t need to, and do I really need that bar of chocolate that I would usually convince myself was necessary? Probably not. A bit of self-constraint and taking the time to think things through is actually very enlightening.
Then the element of people asking you why is also interesting (though I really wish I knew more facts to back up my potentially ungrounded assumptions...) – I’ve just been grilled by my dad as to why veganism is any better than vegetarianism, and why fish is not acceptable, how importing specialist vegan foods would be ‘better’ than eating locally produced meat (or the example he used being ‘if we had chickens in our garden’) and so on and so on. I definitely need to find out more to be able to answer these questions well! So thanks Hayley for your latest post about the flights – very helpful. Any other such posts are more than welcome and I’ll try and add some myself!
The way I’ve defended it so far is that veganism is just one way to lead a more sustainable life, but obviously it doesn’t solve everything and, were I to make a permanent lifestyle change I would definitely want to look into other options to convince myself that I had chosen then most impactful option.
super-hardcore definition of veganism invented
For those that feel being a regular vegan is too easy, here's an extra challenge.
1. Define vegan as not using any animal produce
2. Consider that labour is a form of produce
3. Consider that humans are animals
Bingo, you now have a dietary requirment that means you cannot eat anything that any person or animal has worked to help produce, including yourself. You are resigned to lying under trees with your mouth open, hoping that fruit will fall in.
Bon apetit!
1. Define vegan as not using any animal produce
2. Consider that labour is a form of produce
3. Consider that humans are animals
Bingo, you now have a dietary requirment that means you cannot eat anything that any person or animal has worked to help produce, including yourself. You are resigned to lying under trees with your mouth open, hoping that fruit will fall in.
Bon apetit!
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Day 2: Going veggie could compensate for your international flights (CO2 emissions-wise)
So far, everything seems to be going swimmingly. Lee (who is looking into environmental impact of food) has decided that we should utilise free opportunities as much as possible, and has found a 12.5kg sack of oats for free on Freecycle (collection only). Which could live in the department kitchen and we could all have free porridge for a month.
Kicking off day 1 with a vegan sort of party was also successful. Ralph's home-made humous and Kirsty and Marcos' vegetable curry were particularly popular, but happily large enough that I can probably live off leftovers for a week. However, I am missing meat a little bit. And I still wasn't really sure of the impact that different diets can have on the environment. So, starting with one of the more-established metrics, I had a look at the carbon footprints of different types of diets.
There are lots of ways to measure the environmental impact of foot, from land use to water requirements. The carbon footprint is a measurement of all greenhouse gases produced by a particular product or activity, and has units of tonnes (or kg) of carbon dioxide equivalent. Its becoming particularly popular with the increased attention focused on climate change and the impacts of CO2.
As per normal, trying to calculate anything to do with life-cycles and with lots of variables is irritatingly vague. I attempted to get some estimates using the Carbon Footprint Calculator at www.carbonfootprint.com.
Looking at different eating habits, the Carbon Footprint Calculator gave the footprints of each diet as:
Kicking off day 1 with a vegan sort of party was also successful. Ralph's home-made humous and Kirsty and Marcos' vegetable curry were particularly popular, but happily large enough that I can probably live off leftovers for a week. However, I am missing meat a little bit. And I still wasn't really sure of the impact that different diets can have on the environment. So, starting with one of the more-established metrics, I had a look at the carbon footprints of different types of diets.
There are lots of ways to measure the environmental impact of foot, from land use to water requirements. The carbon footprint is a measurement of all greenhouse gases produced by a particular product or activity, and has units of tonnes (or kg) of carbon dioxide equivalent. Its becoming particularly popular with the increased attention focused on climate change and the impacts of CO2.
As per normal, trying to calculate anything to do with life-cycles and with lots of variables is irritatingly vague. I attempted to get some estimates using the Carbon Footprint Calculator at www.carbonfootprint.com.
Looking at different eating habits, the Carbon Footprint Calculator gave the footprints of each diet as:
- Hungry Carnivore (lots of red meat): 1.43 tonnes CO2/yr
- Carnivore (eats some red and white meat): 1.18 tonnes CO2/yr
- Vegetarian: 0.42 tonnes CO2/yr
- Vegan: 0.17 tonnes CO2/yr
(this includes lots of other estimation too, for example how much you try to buy organic or local food compared to imports, but those variables were all kept constant to attempt to solely compare the impact of meat eating vs vegetarianism vs veganism).
Attempting to put these into context, your carbon footprint from taking these flights (economy, naturally) would be:
Attempting to put these into context, your carbon footprint from taking these flights (economy, naturally) would be:
- One-way flight London to Boston: 0.42 tonnes CO2
- One-way flight London to Barcelona: 0.12 tonnes CO2
Values from www.carbonfootprint.comSo, according to these numbers, going from a meat-eating Carnivore to a vegetarian diet, potentially offsets enough emissions in one year compensate for the emissions produced by a return flight from London to Massachusetts. This surprised me.
Values from www.carbonfootprint.comNotes so far:
1) Whatever the impacts of veganism may or may not be, so far it has forced me to be more aware of what I'm buying and eating. Impulsive snacks (probably the ones that have travelled a long way in lots of packaging) are pretty much out. And thinking about impact in this respect also makes me more aware of what else I am and am not doing (not that its changing my behaviour, but I'm thinking a little bit more about stuff). This may just be a novelty and will wear off in a few days.
2) I miss steak. A chestnut-tofu cutlet just isn't quite the same. Any steak-substition suggestions gratefully received.
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