Veggie Update

I'm a few weeks into my "going veggie" lifestyle reorg and so far it's going pretty good. I don't think I've had any red meat since I last posted. Like I said, cutting red meat out wasn't going to be too terribly hard since I don't eat it anyway... especially after reading stories like this one about a recent beef recall! I prefer my red meat to be feces-free thank you very much! Did I mention that I don't really like vegetables either? Mom never made me eat them growing up (except for corn), so I've never really acquired a taste for them. And seeing how I'm not an adventurous eater, this will probably be harder than most people.

I'm finding that it's pretty tough when eating out. There's lots of chicken & pork dishes to choose from, but I start to think about where that meat came from & I just end up getting a salad or veggie burger, which is probably better anyways. There are a handful of places that I feel ok eating the meat because they purchase their food from suppliers that have good animal welfare standards or they're going to make changes to purchase from those suppliers. Fast food joints like Burger King and Chipolte are places that I would choose first over anything else.

I get a lot of my information from the Humane Society website. They often have post updates about what companies are the latest to switch over to buying cage-free eggs, buying their chicken from producers that use controlled atmosphere stunning (which is a much more humane method of slaughter because it uses non-poisonous gas to kill the birds by anoxia), or buying their pork & veal from producers who no longer use or are phasing out crates. These are the main reasons that I would make it a point to eat at Burger King, Carl's Jr., Hardees, Denny's, Chipolte, Ben & Jerry's over the other places (like McDonalds, Wendy's, Jack in the Box). Just for the egg & pork meals tho! Since all these places have a long way to go with their beef meals, I still won't eat the burgers.

My shopping habits have changed too. Shopping at Whole Foods was one a few options where I could buy my meat products because they have amazingly strict animal welfare standards that their suppliers have to live up to. But after Safeway announced that they will be implementing new animal welfare standards with regards to eggs, chicken and pork, you can bet that I will continue to shop there.

So little by little I'm doing my part to make the changes necessary to have a guilt-free consciencous with regards to eating animals. And I hope some of what I've said here will inspire you to do the same!

Trying To Go Vegetarian

Christian and I are going to try to become vegetarian this year, mostly because of the animal welfare issue. We're going to start by cutting out red meat first. I think I'm going to do ok with that, but Xian might have some trouble with it. That's why he's designating one day a week where he can still have red meat. It'll be an easier way to wean him off the meat! The next step, once we've mastered the red meat, will be pork products. I think I'm going to have a tough time with that one. I like the pig many different ways: ham, spam, sausage, bacon, scrapple, chops, etc. Weaning myself will be a bit more difficult.

I go back and forth with this topic a lot. Part of me doesn't want to go veggie, but instead just buy our our meat from Whole Foods, PCC or some other specialty store where they have implemented humane animal welfare standards from their suppliers. That makes it easier for me to eat meat, knowing it was raised humanely without antibiotics, fed a healthy and natural diet, and hopefully transported and slaughtered humanely too. I'm a meat eater with a conscience. There's a great book out called "The Omnivores Dilema". "The author addresses that fundamental question of "what should I eat" with great wit and intelligence, looking at the social, ethical, and environmental impact of four different meals. Eating well, he finds, can be a pleasurable way to change the world.” I should probably read it soon (it's on my bookshelf) with the hopes it can provide some tips on how to not feel guilty about eating animals or how I can make better choices.

But when I watch videos like this one from the Humane Society about the Overlooked Lives of Farm Animals (don't worry it's not graphic, just truthful), I just know I have to make a change for the better for the animals AND myself.

A New Project

I was told I don't blog often enough. I guess that's true. I tend to forget that this place exists or that I don't have anything special to talk about, unlike my good pal Holy Juan. I've never been very good at journaling, but I'm hoping that will all change soon. I recently picked up a book called: fotolog.book: A Global Snapshot for the Digital Age. It's a book of pictures from floggers (photo bloggers) from around the world. Here's the website: fotolog.com.

Just flipping thru it in the bookstore inspired me to pick up my camera and do something with it more often. Take a picture a day. Talk about it. Sounds simple enough I guess, but it's hard to get inspired around this suburb of Seattle. However, things always look different thru the lens, so there's probably a lot more photo ops out there than I think. Stay tuned for something exciting and new!

By the way, I did get my tattoo and it rocks! Here I am showing it off in Hawaii: