Being Veggie

I’ve been plant-based for 32 years. Vegetarianism certainly wasn’t mainstream in 1988. I didn’t know anyone else who didn’t eat meat, but I knew I didn’t like it. I was 15 and that was old enough to decide. I was becoming aware of the horrendous treatment of animals, and of how the meat industry has a devastating effect on the environment. Even back then Leonardo DiCaprio was a crusader for the planet. Man he was cute in the 80’s. Fast-forward to today when the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (now Earth Alliance,) has provided over $100 million dollars in grants towards environmental solutions on a global scale. If Leo was cute in the ’80s, his philanthropic work makes him dead sexy today.

Can a vegetarian and a carnivore live and eat together? Author Michael Pollan says “the way we eat is an expression of our values,” and that when we don’t eat the same food it can create a “line through the dining room table. Eating from the same pot puts people on the same emotional page.” My husband and I have been making it work for the past 20 years, but since watching “The Game Changers” recently on Netflix, he has decided to eat less meat. I think it was Arnold who got to him. This is a monumental shift for my husband who is a burly “man’s man,” from rural Northern Ireland. He said he didn’t realize the health implications of eating meat or the extent of the impact factory farming has on the environment. He’s loving my vegetarian recipes. (Please check out my Food section for lots of veggie inspiration!) This doesn’t mean my hubby will never eat a steak again, it just means that by reducing his meat consumption he’s making one small change to better his health and the planet.

I am raising 3 vegetarian tween/teenagers who have never eaten meat in their lives. When my son was 14 he came to me to talk about how his class had discussed carbon footprints, and that his was lower than his peers because he doesn’t eat meat. I love that my kids are old enough to decide for themselves now, but they still choose to be vegetarian. My son also told me that his carbon footprint was higher in the area of travel. We do travel, but I believe that the trips we take act as our “happiness anchors,” and it is in part the special time we carve out to be together that makes us so close as a family. I told my son that being perfect isn’t attainable. The fear of failing paralyzes us and prevents us from taking action. We need to make one small change to make the world a better place. We need more Gretas. We have to be the change we want to see, not just to talk about it. So I’ll stop writing and worrying about needing to try to be a “perfect citizen of the earth,” and just think about one small change I can make today.