Vegetarianism: From Compassion to Environmentalism

Why are you a vegetarian?

"Compassion" was my answer. I believe that a living creature should not die because we enjoy how it tastes.

What about plants?

"Plants grow to give seeds" I said. Growing a plant, eating it, and allowing the seeds to grow again is a natural and productive partnership between a plant and its consumer.

At some point, didn't we need to eat meat to surive?

"Yes," I said. I know that at some points in history eating meat kept people alive when no other food was available. Eating meat made us who we are today. However, the survival of our race no longer depends on killing animals. we have more than enough resources to feed everyone on the planet a vegetarian diet.

You do realize that eating manufactured soy-based products and other meat substitutes can use far more overall resources than eating locally raised meat? Therefore, at times it is more environmentally ethical to eat meat than not.

"Yikes" I said. That is a very good point, and one that cuts deep into another issue. The environmental aspect of not eating meat can be trickier than the compassionate reason for not eating meat. In fact, it is more important. If I am making a choice to eat vegetarian alternatives to meat, and those products like soy based meat substitutes that are often grown over seas, manufactured in one place, packaged in another places, and then shipped to my grocery store, then I am basically putting my foot in my own mouth. Now, it is true that most meat, especially beef, is extremely hard on the environment for the same reasons listed above. Choosing a vegetarian option is definitely better than eating beef or low grade meats usually found in fast food restaurants and cheap frozen dinners. But local meats..... I agree that local meats are much superior to eating the less humane, less environmentally friendly, and less affordable meat. For compassionate reasons eating meat, even locally, which is admittedly better (both for your health, and for the planet) is still something I will no longer do.

Are you alright with making decisions that are more harmful to the environment than another available option?

"No, I will go one further and be even more environmentally friendly than your options listed" I answered. I will not eat meat for compassion reasons, and I will no longer (or at least significantly reduce) eating vegetarian products that take a lot of energy to make it to my plate.

How will you accomplish this?

"To limit my environmental impact, I will buy and eat a very locally based diet," I said. I will buy vegetables in bulk from farmers markets. I will research where my food is coming from and choose options that are closest to me. I will choose foods that are not processed, or minimally processed. I will not buy frozen prepackaged food. I will no longer buy fast food. It is my new mission to not only eat compassionately but also environmentally.

How will you afford this?

"Well, that is always an issue," I said. Accept farmers markers can be reasonable, although limited. Eating healthy is not only expensive monetarily, but even more expensive in time. I spend more time preparing food, shopping for food, researching food. I am challenged to spend time either making lunches before work, or bring the tools to make lunch at work. I have to learn new recipes that use the items I have before they go bad. Eating is a struggle. But it is a fun struggle, because it is honest, and it is aligned with my beliefs. Eating used to be something I did lazily and without much thought. No longer is that the case. I will put money where my mouth is, and commit to eating an animal friendly local vegetarian diet. And I will enjoy it.

mind sludge: how soda and meat affected my mind through childhood

When I was younger, I struggled with a faulty memory. In high school I never have the interest and barely had the capacity to read a book, much less remember it. I could not keep my mind focused enough to read one page of a text book, without my mind wandering. I always turned in homework and extra credit and still had to cheat on tests to keep a B average. Learning was never fun.

As the years passed, I found my interests growing, my thirst for knowledge growing and a genuine basic understanding of simple things growing at large rates; and I could even retain some of this information. There are three major shifts in my life that I associate with catalysts for the improvement in my memory and basic intellect, those things are: college, quiting soda, and becoming a vegetarian.

In junior year of high school, I remember procrastinating all winter break, giving myself only 48 hours to read the entire book of the Grapes of Wrath. The test the next day was a majority of our grade, and I was already struggling with sub par scores. The memory sticks out like a glowing orb, because reading the Grapes of Wrath was painfully difficult for me, the pain was followed by an empowering sense of accomplishment, which was immediately followed with a feeling of actual enjoyment. I literally thought, in reference to reading an entire book, “I may want to do that again someday.” Pretty pathetic I know, but I realize now that my habit of eating, junk food and non existent sleep was starving my brain. In retrospect I am lucky to have done as well as I did.

During this time, when my eating was the worst and drinking soda was at its all time high (even despite the fact that as a cross country runner it was forbidden from our diet), I struggled in every class; except art. A good indication why I am a visual artist today. In high school geography I cheated on tests by writing the first letter of each country or state or body of water on my hand starting from the left side of the map to the right side of the map. By having the first letter of each answer, it helped me pull good scores on tests that I would have easily failed otherwise. My failsafe was writing the letters on my hand or shoe, where all I had to do was rub the area and the letter would dissappear, which was made easier by the fact that my hands were always sweaty when I cheated. In math and Spanish I would constantly bring tests up to the teacher and ask for assistance or to help understand a problem, prodding for clues into the correct answer. Much of my high school school day was spent trying to manage my ways into good grades without actually learning anything, for the prospect of actually learning seemed almost impossible.

College, while emotionally difficult, eventually opened my eyes to a new style of study. While I struggled with similar memory issues from my childhood, I made headwind in essays, research and group projects. I actually began to enjoy learning, even in classes which did not involve art; although my art classes still remained my favorite. At my fourth and final year at Winona State University, I finally realized that I: had the ability to learn anything, to make my own decisions, to be confident or shy, to be smart or dumb, and decide who I wanted to be. Again, it seems quite improbable that such simple basic truths took me 22 years to understand and grasp, but it is the truth. Not one year after college I was having art shows in my apartment, and I even went out got my drivers license, which represented my independence.

Creativity and motivation have been two areas that I have always excelled in, although neither could be effectively pointed in any certain direction. In fact, it was quite obvious that my creativity and motivation would be on something other than the primary objective, regardless of what the objective was. In grade school I designed and drew thousands of my own trading cards, copied them, and sold them to neighbor kids for loose change. In high school, when I should have been studying, I was up all night writing fictional wrestling shows on the Internet. Anytime I tried to apply myself to school or homework my eyes glazed over and my mind shut off. In college I was able to effectively put my motivation and creativity into my art classes, and learned everything from intaglio prints, to welding and plaster poring. For the first time in my life, my assets had aligned with my primary objective. It was during this time, it became clear I could use those skills in areas other than just art. My grades improved slightly and I graduated with a 3.52 GPA.

When I was 25, I had just begun a small business airbrushing murals on automotive vehicles. It was during this business leap, that I decided that drinking soda had to stop. I had been researching high fructose corn syrup for a while, thanks to hints mainly from my mother, and despite my severe addiction to the drink; I went for it. After quitting soda I had severe headaches for a week, and cravings that still show up on occasion today. Predicting such a response, I had set up a system up juice, tea and natural soda to buffer my transition. I am now a devoted tea drinker and am very happy to have given up soda. The idea to make this change was a direct result of the independence I gained from college; I did not want to be addicted to something proven to be bad for me and I was dedicated to change. Not long after this change did I find my capacity for new information began to increase, I began reading books, doing research on the Internet and giving myself homework assignments.

The homework assignments, often based on immortality research, and my new relationship to my girlfriend named Kelsey, led me strait to vegetarianism. Kelsey and myself went to protest the RNC convention in St. Paul, Minnesota in 2007 when a fellow protester handed her a pamphlet on ethical choices. Needless to say she was a vegetarian by that night and after staying up all weekend watching a documentary called Earthlings, a documentary about the inhumane treatment of animals, I was a vegetarian three days later. After all of my research on meat eating I truly felt like I had no choice. Since then I have written multiple papers and blogs on why one should quit eating meat. With just a little research and a two hour movie I had developed a terrible guilt about eating meat and the choice made me a more healthy person. Little did I know it would also greatly effect my memory and knowledge.

I still miss the taste of meat, but I did not have the withdrawals the way I did when I quit drinking soda. Quitting meat was incredibly easy for me, I have developed a great interest in cooking now and I have found a love for new foods like beans, curry, spices, and vegetables of all kinds. The decision basically obliterated my consumption of fast food, which was another positive side effect of becoming a vegetarian.

In high school, or even in college, there is no chance that I would have sat down on my own time to write a short essay about my personal experiences with my memory and diet. Like the one you are reading now. You could argue that my progress is part of a natural process of getting older and having experiences that accumulate into a vault of knowledge; however I can guarantee that my mind has been effected greatly by my diet. College built the blocks for an inquisitive mind, and soda and meat kept my mind dormant for the first 20 years of my life. I often wonder how my life would be different if I never ate meat, and never drank soda. I do believe that each person is different, and meat in certain situations can be beneficial in ones diet. I stand by the health and ethical reasons for being vegetarian, and all young people should make a great effort in finding learning systems which allow each individual person to find a joy in learning. Meanwhile, everyone should avoid partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup, which can be found in junk food and soda. Make this a day to give up something that is bad for you, and stick to it.

Food Poisoning List is Scare Tactics

This report 'make you sick foods' makes me sick. By highlighting the fact that some very healthy foods can make you sick, I think it is serving as a scare tactic to keep people from eating healthy, natural, unprocessed foods.

A better way to label this list would be foods that should be washed. I am pretty sure a majority of the healthy eating crowds wash their food before they put it into their mouth. It takes two seconds to rinse off vegetables, which is a lot quicker than waiting in the drive thru line waiting for the heart attack sandwich and plastic fries. I think articles like the one on health dot com can be very detrimental to our society, as obesity climbs to new heights or new pant sizes.

I think this type of article is also very misreported, as other news sources pick it up and mention the article it slanders the very foods that are essential in our diet. The food we need to be eating, the foods we can grow ourselves. I heard about this article on a talk show (probably Conan O' Brien) when flipping through the channels, and thought it was a ridiculous claim altogether. The actual article is probably factually correct, but puts emphasis on negatives and emphasizes the bads instead of the goods.

Veggies are good! Pass it on!

Working harder...

I have spent my life working minimal hours and finding ways to pay my bills and not spending much money on anything else. I am tight with my money, I try to save the little extra I can and spend time building new skills instead of repeating the same task over and over. I also like to travel if possible, and have been able to spend weekends in Iceland and Ireland in the past 5 years.

In the past decade I have worked many jobs including security (old folks home and art museum varieties), teacher (in over 10 subjects), airbrush artist, vendor, tattoo design, body painter, illustrator,

Its funny how the economy turn has not effected my life drastically, like it has others. Partially because I am already used to pinching my bills, and being crafty with money. The one luxury in my life is taking a hit though, and that is healthy food. My recent switch to being a vegetarian and eating organic foods is the biggest expense in my budget, and as the hours dwindle and my pay checks pay less of my bills I go from organic cheese to store brand cheese and right down the line I start eating a little bit worse.

At the same time, we are growing a little porch garden with fresh herbs and tomatoes; and cooking more often. Our little garden is helping to balance the less organic purchases from the grocery store. We still go to the farmers market for veggies, and eat lots of salads but find ourselves still shelling out good money for food.

I do not seem to be spending more time working, but spending a lot more time organizing ways to save money or plan ahead for future jobs. I guess that's the biggest difference for me, a starving artist, during the recession; spending more time planning ahead. My free time is filled with applications, grants, and proposals. It seems I am working harder for less money, just not the same way most people are. Or maybe everyone is doing this.

Hard to say.

Back to work.

The best vegetable sandwich

Becoming a vegetarian was one of my recent life changing decisions. After doing research about health, and watching this documentary about animal treatment, I knew vegetarianism was for me.

The last 6 months have been an exploration in flavors, meals, organic products and smoothies. Each time I find a breakthrough recipe I try to let people on my blog know about it. Eating healthy is expensive, but I figure I am paying for extra years on my life, and therefore in comparison; eating healthy is cheap.

Here is a picture of the sandwich I have been making for the past few days:





This vegetarian sandwich is among the best 5 sandwiches I have ever eaten, pre or post my meat eating days, it is also extremely healthy. Anyone can make this sandwich and be eating a fabulous healthy meal which tastes really good. Here's the recipe (this is the first official recipe on my blog, so please let me know if you enjoy it or if I should stick to other topics):

The Ultimate Vegetable Sandwich Recipe

Whole Wheat Bread (extra points if you make it yourself)
Spread (please refer below for the spread directions and ingredients)
Fresh sliced tomatoes
Black Olives
Artichokes
Red lettuce (kale and spinach optional additions)
Sprouts
Green peppers
Cucumbers

Here's how it looks on the toasted bread:



The spread, as you can see on the right side of the toast is a bit complicated. However, I make a big batch of it and keep it in a tupperware for multiple use. This amazing vegetarian spread is great for crackers, dipping organic corn chips, or on sandwiches. It is also extremely healthy.

Cream Cheese Spread Recipe:

(To make about 10 servings to use for multiple meals)

1 package lowfat cream cheese (i prefer the rectangles)
sunflower seeds
flax seeds
fresh chopped garlic
fresh chopped ginger
tiny drop of milk (to help fluidity of spread)
chopped parsley
squeeze of fresh lemon
tiny bit of sea salt
black pepper
finely chopped white or red onions
finely chopped green onions

Mix together in a tupperware container, use what you need and put the rest in the fridge. This spread is excellent even a week or two later. The flavors are really light and enjoyable, however you can add more of any of your favorite ingredients and turn the light flavor into an intense spread. I prefer it right in the middle.

Transforming your sandwich:

Now put your bread in a toaster, and add the spread on one side. Lay your veggies on the other side and place on pan to sit in a heated oven for just 2 minutes (see pictures above). Then put together your warm sandwich and you have yourself an amazingly healthy, tasty veggie sandwich that your taste buds and body will thank you for.


If you enjoyed this blog you will probably enjoy my posts on:

Tempeh: the best meat substitute and what to do with it

A Story about Beans....yes beans

Quit Drinking Soda and save your life

A cute story about beans

First, there was a young man (me) who had just recently become vegetarian(see: no more meat). He ventured to his favorite food store in the whole world, the Wedge Co-Op in Minneapolis. The Wedge has wonderful healthy foods, but can be quite expensive for a young man, especially since he is a starving artist.

This particular visit to his favorite store, he was marveling at the glorious food choices and managed to run into a sample cart (where people give you free food to taste-hoping you will buy it). This particular sample was a casadilla with cheddar cheese and...



Amy's Refried Beans. As he put this tiny morsel in his mouth, it felt as if the heavens opened up to enlighten his vegetarian mind of such a tasty bean product. I should preface the story to admit, even as a meat eater, this young man loved Amy's frozen enchilada;s; although rarely had the funds to satiate such desires. During his meat phase, beans were not at all appetizing to him. Meanwhile, the great refried beans in his mouth at the sample cart, were so tasty that he could not help but buy two cans; and ever since that day the young man eats Amy's refried beans nearly everyday; sometimes even cold (which is saying a lot since he rarely ate beans prior). To say that the sample cart worked in an understatement. The young man thanks Amy's Refried Beans everyday.

This is the end of my story, since my burrito is finished; and its time to eat.



If you enjoyed this story, you should read about the greatest meat substitute or click the sidebar to read one of many other topics I talk about on my blog.

Grilling Tempeh: the best meat substitute around

A year ago, you couldn't find me even getting near tempeh (a meat substitute) made with compressed soy, vegetables, or grains. However, just based on this meal I cooked last night, I must admit I am even shocked by my adaptation to an acceptance and actual hunger for vegetarian foods.

This meal is based around grilling tempeh like you would any meat patty, it really looks and smells good. Look at the golden brown texture in the photo.



I then top the tempeh with sour cream, green olives, sunflower seeds, cheddar cheese and green pepper. Add in a small roast of carrots and potatoes, and a pile of spinach and you got yourself one great meal. This plateful is probably pushing two servings of food, and since I do not eat breakfast it tends to result in large helpings for dinner.




I am very interested in immortality and the future well being of our race on this planet. This is why I have chosen to stop eating meat, and even began calorie restrictions (based on the eat less live longer strategy). My next step is to avoid all fluoride, and reduce my sugar intake.

With the world crumbling down around us, it is all the more important to stay healthy, eat right, be aware, learn new skills and face the future with your best efforts. If you are cutting back on spending in 2009, make sure not to cut back on good quality food (organic veggies and fruit)! And if you really want to save money try my philosophy of never buying new.

If you eat meat I DARE you to watch this video

My last blog post dealt with my decision to consider becoming a vegetarian. This led a reader of mine and fellow immortalist to link me to videos of a documentary called: Earthlings. Earthlings is probably the most powerful documentary I have ever seen. It has cemented my commitment to becoming a vegetarian. It was by far the hardest documentary i have ever watched. I took three breaks, and felt physically like I had the flu after each segment. It was a brutally real and sickening shocking look at our treatment of animals on earth.

Here is the best quote from the movie:
"As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: In their behavior towards creatures, all men were Nazis."

If you are already vegetarian and want to be reminded why to stay vegetarian, watch these videos. If you want to convince your meat eating friends, this is the video they should watch. And if you eat meat, like I have my entire life, and you want to finally know what the fuss is about, and stop just ignoring the real problems....this video is for you!

I strongly suggest supporting this video and buying it. After you watch it, if it changes you like it changed me, go out and buy Earthlings, and pass it to all of your friends who are willing to listen and learn.