Lower on the Food Chain

I’m about the worst vegetarian ever – for which I used the acronym WVE – or what’s sometimes referred to as a flexitarian. To some people that just means omnivore, but in fact, it’s not quite. I used to eat a diet that probably included meat in nearly every meal – because it’s easy to do so as an American if you’re not thinking too hard about your food choices – and making the decision to be veg means that I do occasionally eat meat, for whatever reason I choose, but the majority of my food consumption is made of vegetables and grains.

It does not mean that other people can decide it’s okay for me to eat meat whenever *they* choose, however.

I don’t have an ethical problem with eating animals, but I do have a problem with treating them like crap before I do, and so noe I don’t worry as much about the way the animals I eat have been treated. My logic is that if everyone ate as little meat as I do, we wouldn’t have these massive meat factories and horrible, horrible treatment of animals. As one organic, free range farmer put it: “Our animals have a really great life and then one really bad day.” Which is, to my logic, about as good as it gets for any of us, no?

My point is: October is Vegetarian Month! So check out this nifty little info graphic that has all the stuff you need.

I’d add: if you have ever thought this might be a good idea for you, it probably is, so try it. & As with any huge change in your life, make sure you give yourself room to backslide and be imperfect at it for a while. & Don’t worry about the purists: they get their panties in a twist about everything. Just eat consciously and don’t ignore your own ethics. Also: it’s harder than it looks, in my experience, but worth the effort.

Orlando Arrests People Feeding the Hungry

It’s not an Onion headline; it’s the despicable results of a city ordinance in Orlando that makes it illegal to deliver or serve food in such a way that will attract 25 people or more within an area of Orlando within 2 miles of City Hall – without a permit.

But the organization Food Not Bombs has been feeding people in these areas years before this ordinance was passed in 2006, and has applied for, and been rejected for, a permit.

The arrests of people attempting to serve food as they have in the past have been primarily members of the group Food Not Bombs, who have been sharing food in these areas since 2005.

 

What the hell is this country coming to when volunteers, on their own dime, want to feed hungry people and are arrested for it?

Here’s a list of Orlando officials to contact about these heartless arrests. Whatever happened to the right to free assembly? Does it say anything about the Constitution about people not being allowed to assemble if there is food involved?

Honestly, my mind is blown by this news. We have got our heads up our asses in this country in ways that make me ashamed.