Trying to Live and Eat Ethically

Recycling: The least good.

At the age of 18, I started to become concerned with eating ethically. A friend of mine and I stumbled upon a website, meat.org that spearheaded our efforts to eat ethically. At the time my only concern was animal cruelty. I didn’t consider other issues like environmental impact; pesticides, soil depletion, fossil fuel use, or human rights. In the past 5 years I have done many foolish things while trying to eat and live ethically; hindsight is 20/20 I suppose. I think the term “ethical” gets thrown around a lot and has become a buzz word. I use it because it’s easier than explaining in detail exactly what I mean and most people understand the idea of “ethical”.

I stopped eating pork at about age 18. An article in Rolling Stone Boss Hog  was released and that was it, no more pork for me. The article was about Smithfield, America’s largest pork processing conglomerate. Boss Hog painted a grim picture of the meat industry. At this point I was completely ignorant of how meat ended up on my plate. The article covered not only the cruel treatment of pigs, but also other issues that I had never considered; pollution, poor treatment of workers, and food safety.

At this point I started eliminating meat from my diet; first chicken and commercial eggs, then beef, then fish. After about a year my main source of protein was protein powder. I still ate meat occasionally though, usually at family or social events. I would like to mention that my beef is with commercial meat; I have no issue with meat from animals that are treated well.

From age 17 to 20 I was mainly focused on minimizing meat consumption. I had not yet considered other factors involved in eating and living ethically. Looking back, it’s amazing how ignorant I was. I completely ignored other aspects like minimizing consumption of consumer goods, fossil fuel use, and thinking that other foods were “ethical”. I did some really silly things too; I ate so much natural peanut butter that I developed an intolerance to it. To this day peanuts still give me horrible stomach pain, flushing of the face, and make me feel hot. Eating half a jar of natural peanut butter a day for months on end wasn’t a good idea.

I moved to California the summer after high school and the tap water at the place I was living tasted awful. So instead of buying a Brita filter pitcher for my drinking water, I would walk about a mile to Rite Aid and buy 8 gallons of distilled water at a time. I drank 2 gallons of water a day, so I did this twice a week. I somehow managed to fit 3 in my backpack, attached one to the back of the pack, and carried the other 4 in my hands. For those of you wondering, that’s 64 lbs of water. The looks people gave me were priceless; even in “the land of fruits and nuts”, people thought I was crazy. The real problem with this was how much plastic I was consuming, 14 gallon jugs a week. There were times the floor of my room was completely covered in water jugs; I was lazy and would go weeks on end without taking the jugs to the recycling bin;. Why did I do this? Why didn’t I just buy a filter pitcher? Looking back I still wonder what in the hell I was thinking.

It took me awhile to realize that other foods were not “ethical”. For a long time I thought that foods other than meat were “ethical”; similar to many vegans’ viewpoint. I did not consider issues in agriculture like water contamination from pesticide and herbicide use, the disappearance of small farmers, food contamination, fossil fuel use, and animal death from farming; birds, vermin, raccoons, etc. Watching Food Inc. helped me realize that none of the foods I was consuming were truly “ethical”. All the foods that I consumed had a negative impact on the environment.

My roommate and I were curious to see how much stuff we consumed; plastic, cardboard, glass, etc. So we went months on end without taking the recycling out. To sit down at the kitchen table was quite a challenge; marching through milk jugs, glass, and cardboard boxes. Sitting at the table was quite comical; we were literally knee high in recycling. I’m really mad that I don’t have pictures of the “pile”, it was impressive as hell. We both tried to minimize our consumerism, but we still had a ton of stuff; the average person just doesn’t realize how much they consume. Whenever the subject of consumerism came up in conversation with friends, family, or classmates: most just don't get it. They either can’t grasp the concept as to why it’s a good idea to minimize consumption or they think it is stupid. It still amazes me that some people don’t even recycle; recycling is the least good that you can do. There’s a reason why recycle is last in “reduce, reuse, recycle”.  It is a shame, but the majority of American’s are totally blind to the idea that the lifestyle they live has a direct impact on the environment. The Story of Stuff is a great film about consumerism; it’s worth taking the time to watch.

The same year as the “pile” I lived in a not so nice part of town and would frequently walk to the gym or grocery store instead of driving. The problem with this is that people driving by would frequently throw things, scream, honk, or when it was raining swerve into puddles to make sure I got soaked. On my walks I always questioned myself, “Why in the hell am I walking? I have a car!” Despite the problems that came along with walking, I’m still glad that I walked.

I have done some crazy things; I was unrealistic, obsessive, and rigid in my pursuit of being “ethical”. The stress and frustration that I inflicted upon myself was unnecessary. I ask myself, “Why do I even bother?”  Seeing how most other folks live, I realize that I’m pissing into the wind. It took me some time to realize why I do the things that I do; It’s for a little peace of mind. Trying to minimize my impact on the environment doesn’t make me feel good. NOT trying is the issue; I would hate myself if I didn’t at least put forth some effort.