This is, naturally, the question of the hour; it is the question the good people here at MNN are working their tail-ends off to answer. But I believe that one of the many possible steps is changing something right in front of us: our diets.

 

Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma provides a brilliant analysis of how Americans are operating under a meat-eating mentality. According to the book, we are putting large quantities of our natural resources toward growing grain to feed livestock -- not ourselves. This displaces a large space of land for the growth of grain and the raising of livestock.

 

I'm focusing on beef because I grew up in Texas and have seen the crowded stockyards where cows are standing on hills of their own fecal matter. They barely even have room to turn around. On top of this (no pun intended), though their natural food is grass there is no green in sight for miles. Feeding cattle grain fattens them up quicker than an all-grass diet, so it makes economic sense in a meat-eating society. But what happened to eating that grain ourselves? Why do we vilify carbs and tout protein as healthier? I'm not saying that this should be reversed; I am merely trying to question the dominant, carnivorous ideology. Change occurs when reality as we know it is broken down and rebuilt on a more solid foundation, and environmental change is what MNN is hoping to help incur.

 

I make the case for health because, frankly, to me it's the most important. Our bodies are our immediate environments, and without taking care of ourselves we cannot hope to heal the wounds inflicted on our planet. Seeing ourselves as a microcosm of the whole can help us put our "environmental" problem into perspective: it is directly connected to our health crisis. Obesity in America? Rampant disease and skyrocketing cancer rates? These are but symptoms of a larger, planetary disease. We will not have world peace until we have inner peace -- this much has become obvious. And how do we attain inner peace when we are poisoning our bodies with the insecticide residue we used to poison the insects? And why do we think we can poison the insects without drainage into our own water supply? (Though, I must say, I am DYING to call my landlord to come spray for cockroaches, as my cat proudly killed a huge one this morning and displayed it by my bed.)

 

So how do we reconcile our misgivings, our discomfort? It is so much more comfortable to not worry about what we eat or what we spray around the house. It is so much easier to eat what is abundant in our country and ignore the economic strategy of supply and demand -- without our demand, there would be no market for so much beef. And thank goodness I own a cat to protect me from invading pests! I wonder how much of the environmental struggle is an inner one, where we must reconcile ourselves to a harmonious existence with nature. Our dietary preference and our strong distaste for insects of any kind has been socialized into us and can be changed.

 

I wrote this to chart out a manifest(a) for my new vegetarian quest. I will keep you updated on my progress and my opinions. I did not grow up with a vegetarian diet, so I'm undergoing a slow transition.  I know that vegetarianism isn't for everyone, but I do want to urge my readers to consider small changes in their lives in order to diminish wasteful market demands. If we work together on this one, we can improve our health, improve the lives of the animals we raise for food, and improve the health of the planet on which we live.

 

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