We’ve written about water for last year’s Blog Action Day, but some recent movies have got me thinking again about water, and wanted to share them.

View of Manhattan from Roosevelt Island

I recently watched the documentary No Impact Man. This guy Colin Beavan takes his family on a one-year quest to have no impact on the environment – meaning walking, biking, scooting everywhere, no electricity, no new clothes, no toilet paper, and of course, no water in plastic bottles. While many of us don’t live in places like New York City where it’s a bit easier because of the accessibility of farmer’s markets within walking or biking distance, the documentary makes one question what each of us can do to lower our impact.

Georgia Aquarium

For anyone who talks about caring about the environment or where their food comes from, check it out (streaming on Netflix) and the follow-up initiative, the No Impact Project. In any case, the Beavan’s taking their no impact to the nth degree really raises how far we have become as a society in how we treat our food and drink.

Waters of the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Town, South Africa

If you’ve ever drank water (duh), you need to watch Tapped, a documentary about the bottled water business. Winner of multiple awards, this movie examines some startling information, not only about how much we consume (29 billion bottles purchased by Americans alone in 2007), but also the terrible consequences of the business. A few notes:

• Everyone – EVERYONE, YOU, ME – will have an issue with having accessible, clean, drinking water by 2030. That’s not so far away.
• Only 1% of the Earth’s water is drinkable.
• Groundwater rights depends on the state, so big companies own water rights in small towns, like Nestle (which owns Poland Springs) in Maine.
• Though the International Bottled Water Association (yes, there is one) says they only take .02% of available groundwater, critics say by doing so in small areas, fish populations get depleted…among other things.
• 40% of bottled water is filtered tap water. (My way is cheaper!)
• Places nearby refineries making plastic bottles have higher rates of birth defects and cancer. In Corpus Christi, refinery workers are forbidden to let citizens know they have a right to clean air and water. Air and soil are contaminated. Birth defects are 84% higher than the state average.

Jellyfish at Dawn, Wilmington, NC

Wait! It gets better! Have you switched out of individual bottled water because of BPA and stuff? You might still drink water at the office from the water cooler, even filling your aluminum bottle with it. Well, it turns out that most 5-gallon bottles have BPA, and these low doses of estrogen can lead to cancers of the breast and prostrate, ADD, diseases of the liver, ovaries, uterus, low sperm count, and it goes on and on…. So you might think you’re safe refilling at the water cooler, but think again!

The movie is streaming on Netflix (oh, Netflix, how I love thee). See the trailer here:

The smart guys at McKinsey recently came out with a key report, Charting Our Water Future. They are part of a group, the 2030 Water Resources Group that comprises of some big business, including the Barilla Group, The Coca Cola Company, Nestlé (yes Nestle), New Holland Agriculture, SAB Miller, Standard Chartered, and Syngenta.

Folks are starting to recognize this issue more and more. University of Canberra in Australia is discontinuing sale of bottled water by World Water Day 2011. World Water Day (March 22) theme this year is: Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge. Find out here what you can do.

Essentially, something’s gotta be done because we’re all going to be effected – whether you want to know or not.

Check us out on Simple Lives Thursday!

Source: GreenDeals

Beanie Baby’s Zomppa debut!

Join the movement at Healthy Child Healthy World, a great website with lots of information and resources. Watch this Wake-Up Story and sign up!

A Wake-Up Story from Healthy Child Healthy World on Vimeo.

Can’t figure out what chemical is what? GiveThemRoots has a great simple list of what these abbreviations mean – and why you should know them.

Did you know Canada quietly declared BPA toxic back in October? Findings that BPA causes neurological and behavior development issues in rodents and likely sensitively to pregnant women and their fetuses.

We’ve talked about chemicals in your food and your products over the last months. If you want to know some helpful products, check these posts out:

• BPA Alternatives
• Skin Deep

When is the U.S. going to get on board? A Senate hearing noted how babies are born “pre-polluted.” Check out CNN’s video here and watch their useful ‘Toxic America‘ report – from PCBs to those chemicals you find on your non-stick pan, get the 911.

For many people, eating a tarantula would be an unusual, grotesque, and even torturous act. It, by no means, would be considered a food. In contrast, eating a fast food hamburger would be a very normal, and for some people, daily activity. Well I’ve had both, and confess that the eating of a big hairy spider, while uncomfortable, did inspire me to re-orientate my own perception of food.

Objectively speaking, one could consider the tarantula as more of a food[1] than many fast food hamburgers.[2] No preservatives, no colours, no other additives, the tarantula is actually a wholesome edible substance. A fast food hamburger on the other hand, like a great deal of our food, may turn out to be less of an edible substance than we realise. It arrives at the fast food restaurant completely cooked, having already been manufactured across a factory line. Like a piece of Ikea furniture, it requires only assembly at the restaurant.

And because it has already gone through so much processing and cooking, but still needs to travel far and wide and be placed in storage, the individual components of the burger have preservatives added in order to maintain their palatability and increase their shelf-life. The meat in the burger usually comes from an animal whose natural diet of grass has been replaced with grains, hormones, antibiotics and sometimes other dead animal meat.[3] The bun has had extra sugar added to make it tasty. The cheese has no doubt been derived from a dairy cow fed hormones to regulate its ovulation and milk-producing cycle.[4] Each ingredient has had preservatives, colours, and flavours added, to ensure the assembled food product is so familiar and tasty that it has you coming back for more. And although it probably does more harm to us than good, we eat it – because it’s “food”.

The personal experience we each have with food is an ongoing lifelong event where our perceptions are influenced through a web of many factors, including genetics, biology, age, education, income, environment and culture, just to name a few. As children, our perceptions are moulded by our parents and caregivers. Later, our perceptions are shaped by our own experimentation, knowledge and response to external and internal stimuli. This would be fine, if we were working within the boundaries of safe, sustainable, nutritious food. Unfortunately, however, the majority of us are provided food from within a framework of profit. Food industry goals such as mass production, increased yields, and brand loyalty, leads to food produced in an unsustainable manner, with added pesticides, hormones, flavours, preservatives, and more. It is here that the problem begins, and where our food perceptions become critical in navigating the approximately 47 000 “food” products that are available in the average supermarket.[5] See the following ingredient list of a “fruit snack” with “no artificial colours or flavours”:

Maltodextrin (maize or wheat), concentrated fruit paste (22%), modified starch (1412), food acid (citric, malic), dietary fibre (inulin), apple juice concentrate (2%), vegetable oil (emulsifier (lecithin) (soy), antioxidants (304, 306)), sugar, emulsifier (471), natural flavours, natural colours extracted from fruit, vegetables and plants (chlorophyll, anthocyanin), vegetable gums (410,415).

Can we really call this a fruit snack?

As a dietitian, I take full responsibility for all the people I myself have seen over the years and suggested the use of ‘moderation’ as an eating framework. It’s a shame that even professionally trained foodies can get lured into this logic. We need to stop thinking that ‘everything in moderation’ is the answer. Moderation is the response that the food companies supply when asked about their unhealthy products. Just recently, over the furor of food advertising to children, the senior vice president for global nutrition at Kellogg, upon being asked why candy qualified as a healthy choice for children, responded that “with balance and moderation all foods can have a place in the diet”. This is simply not true. Some ‘foods’ have no place in the diet at all.

Since digesting that most delicious tarantula I’ve realized that one of the most powerful actions we can take to divert the path of our current food system trajectory is to turn our own perception of what food is on its head. While nature and nutrition increasingly move further apart, many individual consumers still maintain a traditional understanding of food sources to make their choices, thanks to clever advertising and poor understanding of food industry practices. We need to be vigilant about our choices and remember that our foods increasingly originate from a mechanized and manipulated factory line. Be aware that there are laboratories that deal only with chemically generated flavours that add palatability to your food. These chemically generated flavours are used under many circumstances. For example, added beef flavours are why the taste of french fries from McDonalds did not alter when their frying oil was changed from beef tallow to vegetable oil.[6]

As Michael Pollan says in his book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto,[7] many of our ‘foods’ are not really foods, but in fact “edible foodlike substances”. Too often we accept foods into our diet without enough critical examination. But I ask you to honestly examine, which one is more dangerous: the tarantula or the fast food hamburger?

[1] Oxford Dictionary definition of food: any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink or that plants absorb in order to maintain life and growth.

[2] I choose the hamburger as the archetypal fast food for arguments sake. Many other foods could equally be represented here.

[3] In Fast Food Nation, authored by Eric Schlosser (2001) he outlines that until 1997, the rendered remains of dead sheep, dead cattle, dead cats and dead dogs were fed to cattle. Since then, and currently, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations in the United States allow dead pigs and dead horses to be rendered into cattle feed, along with dead poultry. Poultry is also allowed to be fed dead cattle.

[4] If you want to learn more on this issue, there is an Australian-based website that contains further information: http://www.foodlegal.com.au/.

[5] Food, inc. 2008 (a great documentary to  watch it if you haven’t seen it already).

[6] Schlosser E. 2001. Fast food nation: the dark side of the all American meal. Houghton Mifflin Company. New York.

[7] Pollan M. In defense of food: an eater’s manifesto. Penguin Press. USA. 2008.

No trip to Carolina Beach would be complete without a trip (or two…or three) to the famous Britt’s Donut Shop where the same glazed donuts have been made for over 70 years. One of the top donut shops in the country, these melt in your mouth in a way that should be illegal.

My friend Philippe made his famous Shrimp Provencale with jumbo shrimp caught off a captain’s boat that morning. Yet throughout this relaxing, wonderful trip, I kept thinking about meat.

Here, you may pause. Beach, sand, shrimp…meat? What am I talking about?

Some of you may recall my ongoing dilemma about meat. While Zomppa Tsering has been supportive about my potential in becoming a vegetarian, I am still an omnivore. I have read about CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) and factory farms and have watched videos like MeetYourMeat. (warning: video is graphic).

Julia Whitty of Mother Jones reports that global meat production is expected to double over the next four decades, with negative impact on air and water pollution, diseases, and pathogens. Leslie Hatfield of EcoCentric wrote a great article comparing CAFOs with sustainable pork practices.

So in lieu of meat, I have recently been trying more soy-based products (I am allergic to some soy). But even eating some of these products make me nervous.

• Does soy have long-term negative effects? Andreas Moritz reports that soy – especially those from genetically modified plants – can increase risk of cancers and thyroid disorders among other issues.
• Are veggie burgers really better than meat? The Cornucopia Institute has reported that most non-organic veggie burgers contain hexane, an air pollutant and neurotoxin.
• Is it false advertising to suggest soy milk has the same nutrients as regular milk? The National Milk Producers Federation says no.

But I haven’t been content with only soy-based products. I still craved meat – but was it OK for me to eat it? A couple weeks ago, I finished the book, Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, which reminded me that while I eat animals, I had never watched an animal being slaughtered for my consumption. So on the Friday before I went to the beach, I visited the Homestead Harvest Farm in Wake Forest, NC. Owned and operated by the extraordinary Jan Campbell, her Animal Welfare-approved farm is a place where her chickens, ducks, and turkeys roam freely, behaving as animals do, and maturing naturally as animals should. When it came time for the processing, I observed how Jan gently stroked each chicken and talked to it through the entire process to keep it calm. The process is quick and thoughtful, and done with extreme care. She honors each life.

It was with this experience that I found myself sitting on the beach, contemplating my dilemma. Folks like Jan Campbell and farms like Homestead are as far away from CAFOs as you can get. If more people treated animals the way Jan Campbell does, our meat would be more humanely raised, healthy, and delicious.

Why do factory farms exist then? So many questions, not enough answers.

As I debated with myself about my consumption of animals one early morning on the beach, I saw a rather unusual sight.

A crab eating a jellyfish. The cycle of life and death continues.

A cycle we should honor.

]]> http://www.zomppa.com/2010/07/28/contemplating-meat-on-a-nc-beach/feed/ 18 http://www.zomppa.com/2010/06/02/got-drugstore-cow-milk/ http://www.zomppa.com/2010/06/02/got-drugstore-cow-milk/#comments Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:18:33 +0000 Belinda http://www.zomppa.com/?p=5791 Got milk?

While there is debate out there (i.e. T. Colin Campbell’s The China Study – good read if you haven’t yet) about cow’s milk and its benefits and dangers, a lot of us drink milk or at least give it to our children. But do you know where your milk comes from? If you said, cows, you are right. But do you know where those cows come from and how they are raised?

Many of you are familiar with CAFOs and “drugstore cows” and many of you are not. CAFOs are Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, where animals are pretty much confined in small places where they eat, urinate, defecate, and often die all in the same place with little or no grass or vegetation. There are many resources out there (look them up!) and these factory farms are perfect breeding grounds for bacterial growth and who knows what else. According to the CDC, over 75 million Americans get sick from the food they eat.

Note: these pigs are NOT from a CAFO – they are being humanely raised by a local farmer.

Drugstore cows are cows raised with unnatural diets and pumped with hormones and antibiotics to speed up their growth, which also speed up the possibility of illness (I actually had an argument recently with a woman who swore that a cow’s natural diet is corn and that the “media” was trying to lie to us that cows ate grass…did she think cows shucked corn with their hooves?). Most Americans are directly and indirectly affected by these hormones and drugs that have longer-term consequences than just a bad stomachache.

According to The Ecologist, the chemical pollutants passed from mother to child through the placenta or breastmilk can last decades…or even a lifetime. The EWG (Environmental Working Group) noted that it takes this long for a child to get rid of 99% of inherited pollution (note: that is not 100%):

• Phthalata platicisers (flexible plastics, etc.): 1 day
• Mercury: 1 year
• Flame retardant and stain-proofing chemicals: 12 – 60 years
• Lead: 166 years

This means generations of your children good be affected, causing permanent genetic changes. Does this mean simply not eating meat or drinking milk? But vegetables are not immune to bacteria and toxins. Recall outbreaks of E.coli in bagged spinach or the recent studies linking pesticides and ADHD. Check out this blog, Are You Sure You Want to Eat That?, for more information. Or what about the scandal of corporate greed and bribes and the sale of tainted foods?

So who is responsible for ensuring the safety of what we eat, meat or vegetable? In 2007, the FDA turned to states to step up their food safety programs. There is an ongoing debate whether federal or state control is more effective at ensuring the food safety of large national and multinational food companies.

Rather than getting caught up in this debate and risk harming ourselves and our families, it’s time that we recognize we are responsible for our food safety…as much as possible.

Buy local. Know where you food comes from. Better yet, know the person who grows or raises your food. If your food is not factory-produced or overly processed, the chances of these contaminants become lower. We cannot rely on some federal or state government regulation to do this for us. We have to take charge of our own lives.

Let’s start with our milk since many of our children drink it daily. where is my milk from? is a great website where you can source most of your dairy products.

Source: where is my milk from?

PS June is Dairy Month! For more and an insightful video, check this out.

A drug-free glass of milk and one of ZomppaPatty’s Whoopie Pies. Now that’s something I can get behind.

We’ve all heard  that drinking gallons of water can not only keep your insides running right, but also help you with clear skin. So it’s no surprise to any of us that what you eat and drink can impact not just your weight and love handles, but also the clearness and elasticity of skin – which also happens to be signs of health.

Skin health is also linked to foods like cabbage, carrots, and pumpkins because they help our skin to release the gabillion toxins that get into our bodies. But just as I am careful of the food I buy, I have become more and more conscious of what I put on my skin. After all, 60% of chemicals get directly absorbed through our skin into our bloodstream - why do you think nicotine patches work?.

We see organic soaps at the farmer’s markets. We’ve written about how BPA can leech into our food. So if we care about what we ingest, why do we sometimes view natural or organic cosmetics and household products a luxury? Yes, I use bamboo pillows (cool to the touch) and my duvet is made of recycled materials. Before you think I have exorbitant amounts of money – I wish – I don’t.

I just don’t have that much stuff.

The few items I do buy I spend a little more money because I’d rather not use a dangerous toxic chemical to clean my dishes, even if it’s on sale for $0.99. I went through my entire house and pulled out all the products that my skin potentially absorbs. I thought I would share them here and why I use them. Three things of note:

• No company paid me for writing about them – I just use them
• This might be TMI – but I’m gonna share with you my daily habits
• This is ALL the household cleansers and toiletries and cosmetics I use.The only exception is that I do have a bottle of that goo-ey orange stuff that helps in sticky situations.  The point is: it doesn’t require a lot of money – just buy fewer, higher quality items.

My day starts with brushing teeth with all-natural Tom’s of Maine. They are free of artificial preservatives and colorings, and do a ton of research. And if you’re like me and you sometimes swallow your toothpaste by mistake, I want to be careful I’m not eating some weird toxin.

I use Avalon Organics for my facial cleanser and moisturizer for several reasons. They’re affordable, the moisturizer has SPF 15 and I’m often forgetful to use it (when I do, my favorite is California Baby – fabulous and doesn’t clog your skin. They are also paraben-free, petroleum-free, and propylene glycol-free (propy-huh?), which is known to negatively impact the kidney and liver. Petroleum doesn’t allow the skin to breathe properly.

What are parabens? They are chemicals that preserve stuff. They are also know to be carcinogenic (link to breast cancer) and screw up your endocrine systems by mocking estrogen.

I don’t use deodorant. OK, before you wrinkle your noses, I use a stone instead, the Naturally Fresh Deodorant Crystal. They don’t contain the type of aluminum that is tied to kidney problems and if I’m putting this near my lymphnodes, I want to be as safe as possible.

I use an eyeliner by Gabriel Cosmetics, as they also use natural preservatives. I use Earth Science’s Chamomile & Green Tea Eye Make Up Remover – it’s hypo-allergenic, non-irritating, and paraben-free.

Bored of my daily routine yet? In the bathroom, I keep Nature’s Gate Organics soaps and hand moisturizer. They not only smell good, but they are a company dedicated to supporting clean water.

My body wash is from Burt’s Bees, a recognized leader in environmental sustainability and social responsibility. I’m a night showerer, so this feels fabulous after a long day, but you don’t need a lot so a bottle goes a long way.

If you have a dry scalp like me, finding the right shampoo is not easy. TheraNeem Organix uses neem, which is made from the seed of a fruit and rich in fatty acids and anti-oxidants, and known for its positive effects on skin.

My two skin indulgences that I splurge on are my Evan Healy products. I have this terrible sun spot on my cheek and I use their Pomegranate Repair Serum with Sea Buckthorn Oil. Sounds fancy, huh. Sea buckhorn is known to have restorative properties to help with skin sensitivities and serve as an antioxidant.

Their French Rose Clay is also a lovely (and less expensive) way to give myself a facial at home.

And for you ladies, I use Seventh Generation’s Chlorine-Free pantyliners and pads. They’re safe, chlorine-free and absorbant!

Did I gross you out? Sorry…but it’s life. Moving to the kitchen (almost done …), I also use Seventh Generation’s Natural Dish Liquid. They are hypo-allergenic, bio-degradable, and free of phosphates.

This brand also finds its way to my laundry with its Natural 2x Concentrated Laundry Detergent. It saves me money because I can use less and it’s non-toxic for my skin.

Kitchen soap is Mrs. Meyers Clean Day, which has “a near neutral pH that makes them safe for skin contact.”

Lastly, my floors and countertops.  I use Method. Their almond Wood for Good Floor Cleaner makes your house smell amazing and their non-toxic cleaners are perfect. They make me feel more comfortable that if I drop some food on the countertop, it’s not going to be touching some dangerous chemical.

Whew. If you got to this line, thanks for sticking with me. It seems like a lot, and I probably could just use vinegar and water in some cases, but given that this is my entire use of personal and household products, I think I’m doing OK. I also like these companies because what they stand for.

It’s amazing when you go through your house, how much stuff has the potential to hurt you – and it’s not only with what we ingest. If you have children or thinking about having them, this is even more important. There’s just a lot we don’t know, but I’d rather be a bit safer. Consider going through your house and do an inventory. You don’t have to spend a lot, just spend it smarter.

A great site to check the safety of your products is from the Environmental Working Group.

Our skin requires healthy food, too.

BPA, or Bisphenol A, is an organic compound, a chemical that is used in many food packages, such as the lining of cans, baby bottles, and water bottles. It’s used because it’s lightweight, durable, and versatile. But BPA has been suspected of being bad for humans starting in the 1930s. Since it mimics the body’s hormones, research over the decades have found correlations between exposure and negative health effects, from infant brain development, obesity, cancer, sexual dysfunction…and also bad for the ecology. In Japan, industry VOLUNTARILY (strange concept, eh?) removed BPA lining 10 years ago.

Source: Wikipedia

Prior to January 10, 2010, the FDA assured the public that there was no risk to human. In On January 10, 2010, the FDA announced:

“on the basis of results from recent studies using novel approaches to test for subtle effects, both the National Toxicology Program at the National Institutes of Health and FDA have some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior, and prostate gland in fetuses, infants, and young children.”

SOME concern? Yikes! Even if you don’t care about the environment, maybe you care about pregnant moms and babies? OK, maybe you don’t care about babies, how about getting fat? OK, how about messing up your sex lives?

What can you do?

• Educate yourself about what companies are doing to ensure your foodstuffs are BPA-free.

Stay up to date with sites like the Bisphenol A Free with news, product reviews, and downloadable guides to protect you and your family. Whole Foods has been blogging about their efforts to ensure transparency. Bloggers like ZRecs review baby-safe, BPA-free prodcuts.

• Stay away from #7 plastics (look at the bottom), including food containers and water bottles (buying bottled water is another issue for another time).

A couple years ago, I started hearing about this, recycled any plastic bottles, and switched to SIGG bottles. I spent a nice little chunk of change for my pretty little bottle and even bought Cake Mountain Man his own.

Then last year, reports came out that the original SIGG bottles weren’t safe. Now they have come out with BPA-free bottles and I’ve heard they even replace your old ones. I admit, though, mine now sits in the back of my shelf because I bought it before 2008.

• Find out which companies are or going BPA-free. Use glass jars rather than plastic or canned, especially for tomatoes.

ZomppaPatty uses the Lucini brand and has a great recipe for pizza sauce here. My parents always told me to avoid canned tomatoes, but they never had an explanation other than it’s “bad for you.” Guess they may have been on to something. The high acidity of tomatoes can lead to greater leaching of BPA. Glass tomatoes are hard to find, but if I can’t use fresh or frozen tomatoes (ones that I do), I use bionaturae. Yes, it’s more expensive, but I figure I might as well spend a bit more now than pay thousands of dollars in medical care later on.

• Don’t microwave plastic containers.

I recycled all my plastic containers and use Pyrex to cook, freeze, heat my food. Yes, they’re heavier than plastic, but they don’t get that funky smell or that discoloration.

• Carry your own utensils – especially for infants.

I carry around these fabulous collapsible bamboo chopsticks. Granted, I don’t always use them, but they fit in my little bag (I don’t carry a purse, so yes, they’re small).

Are the studies conclusive on BPA? No. But now the FDA is serious about investigating it. In the meantime, stay aware and the results? TBA.

This is definitely a dilemma for me. I love animals. I love dogs. I think pigs are really smart animals. I care about the environment. I recycle. I reuse bags. I pay extra for the recycled business cards.

Am I a hypocrite?

For those of you who eat meat, I’m sure you understand. For those of you who don’t, please don’t prejudge me yet. I have tried to go vegetarian, but I really like meat and my body doesn’t really do well with only vegetables (or only grains).

A few weeks ago, we joined Blog Action Day on the issue of climate change. BTW, I thought I was so clever today and made up the word “carbon fooDprint.” Turns out, there’s a neat organization – Cool Foods Campaign –  where you can learn more about how to reduce your carbon “foodprint” via your food!

ANYWAYS, this issue just gets more interesting…let’s see a run-down just the last couple weeks…

Lord Stern of the UK (not a vegetarian himself) warned the public they need to turn vegetarian in the Times October 27, 2009. You’re probably familiar with the argument that cattle and pig emissions (i.e. farts and stuff) are more dangerous than carbon dioxide to global warming.

The first country to take this connection seriously is Sweden. In Elisabeth Rosenthal’s October 22, 2009 article, she reports that the Swedish  government is taking steps to literally track their food by labeling the carbon dioxide emissions on food products and menus, from pastas to burgers.

Has this changed anything? Well, it seems that restaurants have found up to 75% of their carbon footprint attributable to meat. But even when they put these labels on their menu items and the more “climate-friendly items” have seen an increase in sales, some people just want a burger. They may feel a bit guilty ordering it, but they do anyways.

Moreover, she notes that the environmental cost is not just because of meat. Rosenthal notes that there are other factors like the type of soil used to grow the cattle’s food. So if we cannot cut meat entirely out of the human diet (which I don’t anticipate happening), then as Michael Pollan and others argue, we really should be paying more attention to where the meat comes from and how the animals are raised.

Rancher Nicolette Hahn Niman wrote in the New York Times on October 30, 2009 about this exact dilemma and raises some provoking points, affirming Rosenthal’s contention that it’s not as simple as meat/no meat, but how the land and surroundings are cared for in the raising of said meat. She points out that smaller, traditional, local farms don’t really have these carbon emissions that lead to global warming whether it is because of distance to market or little reliance on machinery (which sucks up energy).

And can vegetarians eat completely guiltless? Niman points out the reliance on soy for protein…and the most common soy and tofu found in supermarkets are from deforested lands overseas. Between large agribusiness emitting carbons to ship soy from overseas to large agribusiness companies like Monsanto destroying entire ecosystems in the Midwest to grow soybeans, we might have to think again whether meat is the only culprit to massive carbon “foodprints”.

Photo Source: Ecolitics Now

So what does this all mean? As Michael Pollan says, eat less meat. Eat more locally. By buying organic and local meat (which is also more expensive), I naturally buy and eat less. If I can’t get to the farmer’s market, I buy my meat at Whole Foods, where I know they have actually walked the walk with their involvement with the Animal Compassion Fund and Animal Welfare Standards.

I’m not sure I can ever fully resolve this dilemma. I sleep on organic cotton sheets, but my towels are not. I bike or walk where I can, but my car still gets lots of usage. But if Elisabeth Rosenthal is right that “”changing one’s diet can be as effective in reducing emissions of climate-changing gases as changing the car one drives or doing away with the clothes dryer,” then is it possible for me to care about the planet and animals, but still eat a little locally-, organically-, humanely-raised meat once in a while?

Starting today, I’ll start by cutting out meat 3 days a week.