But what about fish?

As a vegan, this is a question people commonly ask me concerning my diet. It's true, the issues surrounding the consumption of sea creatures are slightly different from those surrounding traditional farm animals like cows, pigs, and chickens. Admittedly, sea"food" was the last animal product that I removed from my diet, even after turning from eggs and dairy milk. But there are important issues, and once I became aware of the truth about fish consumption, I could not justify consuming it anymore. The seafood industry may very well be the most environmentally devastating aspect of modern-day animal consumption.

The following information is taken directly from a pamphlet published by Farm Sanctuary, and it covers the topic of fish consumption so well that I thought it would be best to share their words with you rather than try and phrase it myself.

For millennia, fish have been taken from the world's oceans, lakes and rivers and consumed as food. Long gone, however, are the days of individual fishers seeking out a catch. Today, global fish production exceeds that of cattle, sheep, poultry, or eggs, and consumer demand for seafood is driving ocean life to extinction.

Over the latter half of the 20th century, new technologies have enhanced the ability to locate and entrap fish, and wild catches have increased to nearly 90 million tons of fish per year. High-tech fishing fleets use props, such as airplanes, radios, seafloor maps, and video sonar, to track down fish schools. Large nets are used to drag up coral and every living creature on the sea floor. As a result, wild fish and sea life populations have been decimated.

In addition to profitable fish sought by factory trawlers, "economically useless" sea life, including nearly 1,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises, drown in fishing nets each day. The dead and dying "bycatch," comprised of marine mammals, seabirds, sea turtles, and invertebrates, are thrown back into the water. Worldwide, 30 million tons, or one in every four caught sea life, are unwanted and discarded each year. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences states that fishing--not global warming or pollution--is the greatest single threat to the diversity of ocean life in the world's oceans.

The Problem of Overfishing

Many people have the impression that fish are a renewable or inexhaustible resource, but the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization reports that 70 percent of the world's commercially important marine fish stocks are fully fished, overexploited or depleted. In addition, the ocean habitat is being destroyed. Once-common fish are now approaching endangered levels, including tuna, salmon, haddock, halibut, and cod.

During the 19th century, codfish weighing up to 200 pounds were routinely caught. Nowadays, a 40-pound cod is considered a giant. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization estimates that merely to maintain existing rates of fish consumption would require an extra 15.5 to 20 million tons of fish by 2010.

Fish Farms--The Nasty Reality

Farm-raised fish account for one-third of the world's seafood, including nearly all the catfish and trout, and almost half of the shrimp and salmon, consumed in the U.S. Fish farmers commonly feed wild fish to farmed fish and destroy fish habitats by collecting wild fish to stock fish farms. It takes about three pounds of wild-caught fish to grow only one pound of shrimp or salmon.

Raised fin-to-fin in excrement-laden saltwater feedlots, the penned fish are fed ground up fishmeal and oil pellets engineered for fast growth, treated with antibiotics to fight disease, and commonly stimulated with growth hormones. The overcrowded fish are susceptible to disease and suffocation. The FDA Veterinarian Newsletter reports that fish farmers "...use chemicals as disinfectants and to kill bacteria; herbicides to prevent the overgrowth of vegetation in ponds; vaccines to fight certain diseases; and drugs--usually combined in the feed--to treat diseases and parasites."

Densely packed salmon farms in British Columbia, Canada operate in coastal estuaries and produce massive quantities of waste each year, including manure, fertilizer and fishmeal, equivalent to the levels of waste generated by half a million people, destroying fragile estuaries.

Hatchery-raised fish spell trouble for their wild-born cousins by spreading genetic traits that impede survival. Science magazine reveals that, compared to wild salmon, farm-raised salmon laid significantly smaller eggs within just four generations, and these eggs were less likely to survive. Farm-raised fish typically escape or are released and breed with wild-born fish.

And Yes, Fish Are Animals Too

Though commonly assumed that fish do not feel pain, the Roslin Institute and the University of Edinburgh report that fish respond to damaging stimuli and chemicals, and that injured fish experience "profound behavioural and psychological changes" comparable to those seen in mammals.

Anatomical, pharmalogical and behavioral data suggest that affective states of pain, fear and stress are likely to be experienced by fish in similar ways as in tetrapods, or land-living vertebrates. This indicates that fish have the capacity to suffer and that their welfare should be taken into account.

A few other things to note: When we go into a restaurant and order wild-caught fish, chances are that fish was caught in far-distant waters. Overfishing and bycatch aside, just imagine the resources consumed in moving that fish from its native waters to your plate. On the other hand, your fish may be farm-raised--in which case, as we've already seen, raising that fish likely increased pollution of marine waters and even groundwater, endangered the survival of its wild-born populations by spreading diseases and genetic mutations, and imposed horribly cramped, painful conditions on other living beings (which, of course, are capable of suffering just like any other creature).

I grew up on the coast, dining on fresh flounder and shrimp and crab, and sea creatures were my favorite food for most of my life. When I began considering becoming vegan, I thought I would never be able to give up fish. But I did give them up, and I know that it was the right choice--knowing the consequences of consuming sea"food" products, my excuse of I like it too much to give it up held no relevance. And trust me, life goes on--your tastes change, you begin to love foods that you never gave a chance before, and you come to enjoy a diet which is more peaceful and more sustainable... and you realize that you do not need to put flesh in your mouth to be happy.

This is pretty cool...

A painting on the wall of a vegan restaurant near Atlanta, Georgia... Inspiring.

It's easy eating green

Many people who are disgusted by the world climate crisis do not realize that one of the top contributors to greenhouse gas emissions is connected with their diet. Eating vegan or vegetarian does more to reduce emissions than does driving a fuel-efficient, hybrid car. Unbelievable? Check out the following articles:

Vegetarian is the New Prius

Kathy Freston, in this article dated 18 January 2007, cites the findings of a recent report released by the UN, which points to livestock production as "one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." She also reports on the results of research conducted at the University of Chicago, in the following statement:

[Researchers] noted that feeding animals for meat, dairy, and egg production requires growing some ten times as much crops as we'd need if we just ate pasta primavera, faux chicken nuggets, and other plant foods. On top of that, we have to transport the animals to slaughterhouses, slaughter them, refrigerate their carcasses, and distribute their flesh all across the country. Producing a calorie of meat protein means burning more than ten times as much fossil fuels--and spewing more than ten times as much heat-trapping carbon dioxide--as does a calorie of plant protein. The researchers found that, when it's all added up, the average American does more to reduce global warming emissions by going vegetarian than by switching to a Prius.

You can read more about the UN report in the following article on the website of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations:

Livestock a Major Threat to Environment

How about this article by investigative journalist Jeffrey St. Clair, which points to cattle production as a top threat to the health of the Western U.S.'s public lands?

Till the Cows Come Home

The following article, written by Dan Brook, points out that the two gases that comprise 90 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are carbon dioxide and methane--both of which are emitted by large-scale cattle farms at the rate of millions of tons each year. The article also addresses livestock cultivation's role in the destruction of the world's rainforests, which are absolutely crucial to the removal of harmful carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Another Inconvenient Truth: Meat is a Global Warming Issue

There is so much evidence out there that it is difficult to deny, once you begin studying the issue, that the current state of the planet is inextricably linked to the human population's unsustainable diet. Consider the following quotation from the Kathy Freston article:

The United States alone slaughters more than 10 billion land animals every year, all to sustain a meat-ravenous culture that can barely conceive of a time not long ago when "a chicken in every pot" was considered a luxury. Land animals raised for food make up a staggering 20% of the entire land animal biomass of the earth. We are eating our planet to death.

And yet, it is so easy to eat a vegan or vegetarian diet. Sites like Vegan Outreach and GoVeg.com are designed to show how simple it can be to eat a healthy, delicious plant-based diet, and how such a lifestyle benefits the quality of life on this planet for so many creatures in so many different ways. There are vegan and vegetarian cooking sites all over the Web--you can even check out my vegan food blog and from there, explore the many vegan cooking resources that it links to.

I could not consider myself an environmentalist and justify eating an animal products-based diet--the global harm caused by animal agriculture is just too evident. Many people would feel the same way, I believe, if only they knew the facts.

This Sunday, 22 April, is Earth Day--and I believe it is one of the most critical Earth Day celebrations in the history of our country, as more people are aware this year than ever before of the dire climate crisis which our world faces. Please, do not ignore the facts surrounding animal agriculture. Take a look at these articles, and if you are still not satisfied, do some more research. If we truly hope to reverse the destruction of our global environment, one of the crucial steps we must take is turning away from animal-based diets and toward a safer, healthier, greener alternative.

Milk is gross

There are a lot of myths surrounding the healthfulness and ethics of human consumption of dairy products. I have been doing some reading and research, and my goal with this post is to dispel some of those myths. To the best of my ability, I will document all the sources for my information; however, as I have done a lot of reading about these issues in recent months, the list is likely not comprehensive. Research on the subject abounds--do some reading yourself!

Myth 1: Milk does a body good.

Cows are herbivores, and thrive on a diet of grasses. The pastoral dairies we often picture in our minds include black-and-white spotted cows, dotting the rolling green hillsides, lazily grazing on the pastureland and ruminating. The farmer comes out with a tin bucket and a little wooden stool and lovingly milks his cows each day, stroking them and talking to them all the while.

This is not a true reflection of the life and diet of a modern-day, factory-farmed cow. Cows in factory farming operations are confined to stalls and hard cement floors, never given the freedom to graze. They are deprived of a natural diet and instead fed a feed mix consisting heavily of corn (most of it genetically modified), heavy doses of antibiotics, and occasionally the ground-up remains of their fallen comrades (the practice of turning dead cattle back into cattle feed is illegal, but the industry is poorly monitored and this practice still occurs). We all know that animal milk nutrition is based of the nutrients in the diet of the animal that produces it. So what is going into your milk? Genetically modified corn that was farmed with heavy doses of chemical fertilizers; antibiotics; any contaminants that may have remained in the bodies of the dead cows that were ground up for feed.

It gets worse, though. Dairy cows are pumped full of rBGH, a bovine growth hormone designed to increase their milk yield. The increased milk yield resulting from the rBGH causes increased rates of mastitis--the udders of these unfortunate cows swell and become infected with the unnatural volume of milk that they produce. Yet, in the interest of precious time and profit, cows with infected udders are not treated properly for their infection--they are still milked continually. The antibiotics pumped into the cattle feed are intended to deal with such diseases and infection, the intent being that these maladies will get cleared up through the feed and the cow loses no milking time. As a result of not treating mastitis immediately and properly, pus which develops inside the udder ends up in the milk. This pus-infused milk is not discarded; rather, it is mixed with "healthy" milk, packaged, and sold.

Myth 2: Cows need to be milked.

It is true that when cows produce milk, it is healthy for them to be milked and relieved of the pressure that builds up in their udders under the weight of the milk. However, what is not good for cows in these factory farm operations is the extent of their milk production and their milking. These cows are constantly being impregnated, giving birth and then immediately having their calves taken from them, and milked extensively. This ensures that not a moment of precious time escapes when the cow could have been giving profitable milk.

A dairy cow which is allowed to live its natural life, grazing in the outdoors and lactating in natural cycles, should live for 20 years or more. Cows using modern farming methods, however, are often slaughtered once their milk production slows, in as few as three lactation cycles. Modern milking practices, then, scarcely bode well for these animals.

Myth 3: Milk is a good source of calcium and protein.

Our bodies need calcium. Calcium is extremely important in our bone development; without proper levels of calcium intake, we are at risk for the ever more widespread bone disease known as osteoporosis, which makes bones brittle and fragile. America is well aware of these risks, and in fact recommended daily intakes of calcium in the U.S. are some of the highest in the world, at 1,000-1,400 milligrams each day. Yet Americans still are at high risk for osteoporosis. Why?

Calcium is a mineral that neutralizes acid. Our blood has a certain pH level that it must maintain, which is a fairly neutral level that slightly leans to the alkaline end of the spectrum. But certain foods are known to raise the acidity level of the blood--namely, animal proteins and highly processed "junk" foods. Our bodies must produce increased amounts of acid to digest such foods, and once the digestion has occurred, the acid enters our blood supply and makes it more acidic. Thus, our bodies actually leach calcium from our bones to neutralize the acid content in our blood.

So, yes. Milk is a substantive source of both calcium and protein. But when we rely on the protein in milk and other animal products, we actually lose much of the calcium that we take in.

Consider that many peoples have survived for hundreds of years without dairy products, such as the Chinese, and have had little instance of osteoporosis. People in these places take in far less calcium than most Americans do today, but they get their calcium and their protein vastly from plant-based sources. Consider also that vegetarian women, at age 65, average 18% bone loss, while their omnivorous peers average 35% bone loss.

Myth 4: Beef production is cruel, but dairy production is not.

I have already addressed this to some extent above, but there is room for elaboration.

Dairy cows, as I mentioned, are not allowed to graze in conventional farming operations; they are confined, fed meal that is far from their natural diet, and often never see the outdoors. They live but a fraction of their natural lives before being sent to slaughter, once their productivity has declined due to the exhausting methods of milk production that factory farmers implement. During the time when they are alive, disease is rampant among milk-producing cattle because they are confined in such closed, tight living areas where disease can spread easily from one animal to the next, and are fed such enormous levels of antibiotics that antibiotic-resistant strains of the bacteria are constantly evolving--thus increasing the need for more antibiotics, thus perpetuating the cycle.

When a dairy cow gives birth, the calf is immediately separated from the mother, often never even allowed to nurse. Female calves are raised to produce milk, but male calves are considered useless by-products of the dairy industry. They are often sold cheaply into veal production--one of the most horrifying aspects of animal agriculture. Veal calves are confined to crates where they have no room to move, and they are often chained by the neck to further restrict their movement. This is what gives veal meat its characteristic tenderness. The calves are fed an iron-deficient diet so that their meat is pale and desirable; often they become so weak that their legs break beneath their own weight. Then, after 16 weeks of this kind of life, the calves are slaughtered.

"Certified organic" milk, to an extent, helps to alleviate some of these problems, but by no means solves them. Cows whose milk is certified organic must not be fed antibiotics or injected with hormones, and they must be given access to pasture for a part of the year. For large-scale organic dairy producers, this means giving the animals a minimal amount of time in the pasture, and using more conventional methods as much as they can to keep costs low. And even in the organic industry, cows may be sent to slaughter prematurely when they slow down their production. Even in the organic industry, male calves may be sold into the horrible veal industry. For most corporate producers, the animal is still a commodity rather than a living being, and they will do as little as they can to get the lucrative "organic" label slapped onto their products. So unless you personally know your dairy farmer and his commitment to earth- and animal-friendly, sustainable production, unless you know he is concerned for the well-being of his animals, then you cannot be certain that the industry you are supporting is not guilty of the mistreatment of millions of animals each year.

For more reading, follow these links:

Dangers of Milk.
rBGH on Wikipedia.
The Welfare of Cattle in Dairy Production.
Veal Production.
Issues: Organic.

Good news! And more

The accounting firm where I've been interning offered me a job last week! I'm very happy--this means I can go back to school, finish my master's, and know that there is something ready for me in Atlanta when I am finished. And I absolutely love this firm--what a fun group of people to work with every day.

That said, now let me make my official announcement: Bob and Laura Jesser are vegans. Of course, I still have one week left of my internship, and I think that will be a good week for me to practice eating vegan when I do not have the opportunity to cook for myself. It makes me nervous, but I have to believe it will end up being okay. Now that my beliefs and values are directing me toward a vegan lifestyle, I see no reason to pretend in front of everyone at work that this is not the case. I am averse to awkward situations, but my feelings about stewardship of the earth and of my own body are more important to me. I know it will be a good experience, even this week (maybe especially this week), and I'm looking forward to my new adventure!

I think a new adventure merits a new blog, don't you? When I created this blog, my main purpose was to talk about nature and writing and God, to share my writing, to talk about issues that have been on my mind, and so forth. I would like to preserve that original purpose for this blog. However, I would also like to chronicle my new adventures as a vegan, post recipes, talk about challenges I am facing. So click on my profile and check it out!

Can I be vegan?

It's not a question to me of whether I have the desire to be vegan, or even the willpower. I much prefer plant-based foods. My only holdback is, Will I ever be able to have a vegan business lunch? Will I ever be able to visit my parents without fasting? What about retreats? What about those times when you're just in a pinch and need to grab a bite to eat, and nothing seems to suit? I read about the daily adventures of so many vegans, but most of them involved home-cooked food. I love to cook, but the reality of my life right now is that I cannot cook every meal for myself. What about all you on-the-go vegans? You wacky-schedule vegans? You accountant vegans whose managers and clients take you out to lunch weekly to restaurants that feature nothing but eighteen different cuts of beef?

It was not in anticipation of this summer that I chose to become pescovegetarian rather than true vegetarian or vegan, although it has been a difficult feat just to stick to such a diet. The office has been very willing to work with me, but not always very considerate about my diet. I don't blame them at all; I am sure that vegetarianism is very far from most of them, and they don't realize how someone can be so committed to that kind of lifestyle. I have found that, in any given group that I am a part of, it takes one or two times of not eating anything when I'm with them because there's nothing suitable for me to eat, before they realize that I am very serious. But had I cut fish out of my diet before this summer, let alone animal products altogether, there would have been several occasions when I was just entirely up the creek. How do you take two very different lifestlyes and fuse them, and live it well and happily, and not stick out in a very bad way to everyone around you?

I love explaining to people why I have chosen to be vegetarian. In fact, tonight I was able to tell someone the reasons why I want to become vegan. It means a lot to me when people actually ask my reasons, and don't just sit back and think, Okay, whatever... It challenges me to remember my own convictions, and I always hope that it strikes a chord with my audience.

Of course, the main reason Bob and I made our decision was because we felt like the Lord wanted that for us--not necessarily for everyone, but certainly for the two of us. And that is something a lot of people don't understand, making it difficult to share that aspect of our reasoning. When you tell someone you have made a particular decision "because the Lord told us to," the first assumption is often that you are about to start preaching some lifestyle that you believe to be the absolute truth. Of course, I believe Jesus is the absolute Truth, though I don't go around preaching Him without some sort of opening. But veg*nism? No, I don't think everyone is called to that. I don't think there's anything morally wrong with eating meat until it becomes a personal conviction. In fact, most of the people who closely share my spiritual beliefs do not understand the moral and ethical aspects of abstaining from animal-based foods. It's been a great decision for us, but not one that very many people around us, in any circle, understand or are sympathetic to. When your family scoffs at your choice and takes the attitude of You can come visit but if you get hungry you're on your own; when your friends think that the Lord calling you to become vegetarian is something straight out of the book of Ezekiel; when all the world around you is built for something entirely different from you, and it's just you and your husband standing in the middle of it all, it makes it hard to stand up for what you believe in. Not because you waver in your conviction, but because no one gives you the chance to stand up and say the things that are on your heart. Everywhere people think I'm something I'm not, and they don't give me the opportunity to answer to their assumptions about me. What do I do?

Just keep living, and understand that my choice is a good choice, and no one but God has to think so.

A favorite that never fails...

So this weekend my husband came to Atlanta to visit me, and in our limited and shared kitchen space we didn't feel like making an elaborate mess to clean up. So today I made a lunch of something that always satisfies me--black beans. This time I took a Tex-Mex approach and made a spicy, delicious soup. A very economical meal, healthy and nutritious, and VEGAN! Bob and I classify ourselves as vegan-curious these days, and perhaps a permanent switch is coming soon.

2 cups dried black beans
1/2 minced red onion
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 stalks minced celery
1/2 minced green bell pepper
1/2 to 1 jalapeño, minced (I had to go easy, since spiciness is not something my 10-year-old cousin's palate will tolerate)
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 & 1/2 cups cooked corn
1 & 1/2 cups diced tomatoes
1/2 cup salsa (I used a cilantro-lime salsa)
Salt, to taste
Cayenne pepper, to taste

After soaking the beans overnight and rinsing them, I put them in a pot to boil with water to cover plus about 2 inches over the top. I added the onion, garlic, celery, peppers, oregano, salt, and cayenne and let it boil gently with the lid on for about an hour, until the beans were tender. I then added the corn, tomatoes, and salsa, and I let it simmer for another half hour, again with the lid on, until all the flavors were married. This was not as spicy as I would have liked it personally, but it pleased the palates of the family so I was satisfied with it.

The salmon we made on Tuesday night came out so well--it was beautiful. I took pictures but tonight it is too late to upload them. I will do that soon. It was the best salmon I have probably ever had, rivaled perhaps only by seared rare salmon atop a mixed greens salad. This salmon was topped with so many different fruits and vegetables that I cannot even think of them all here, then sealed in foil and baked. It was tender and juicy and full of aroma and flavor... Bob said that he could go vegan right then and never miss fish, because his final fish experience would have been so memorable. We got our fish and produce at the Dekalb Farmer's Market, which is enormous and absolutely wonderful. A pint of organic strawberries for $2??? Incredible.

I found out on Friday that I get to run in the Peachtree Road Race on 4 July--the world's largest 10K race. Of course I won't be racing. I'll be amazed if I manage to run the whole thing, with the shape I'm in lately. But I'm excited just to be a part of it, just to get to challenge myself, just to experience something that 55,000 people a year get to experience. I'll be on the train at 5:30 am on Tuesday morning, to get to the race which starts at 7:30. Perhaps at that time of morning the heat won't be absolutely unbearable. I imagine myself taking a nice long nap before lunch.

Here's a new challenge for myself: I am striving to give up soft drinks. Completely. I am so addicted to Diet Coke, it's unbelievable. It's got to stop. I know it will be difficult, especially with the free sodas at the office that come in so handy during that time of day between lunch and 5:30 when it's so difficult to focus sometimes. But I've got to stop dumping that nasty stuff into my body. Maybe if I just remind myself that I'm poisoning my body and suppressing my respiratory system... Then perhaps it will seem worth it, at 3:00 in the afternoon, to just have another glass of water. Hmm, maybe I need to find a more natural solution for a mid-afternoon energy boost. Any ideas?

My last couple of posts were born of an intense creative streak that hit me a few nights ago. The poem was actually written a month or so ago, during my training week in North Carolina. I was napping out on the golf course before dinner, and every time I looked up I noticed the weeping willow to my left, its limbs trembling even in the near-still air. Suddenly hit with the urge to write, and having nothing on me except my purse, in desperation I canceled a check from my checkbook and penned that poem on the back. This past Wednesday, I finally pulled the check out and revised the verses. The other piece I posted was inspired by a game I recently played (Bob knew what game the moment he read the piece). I am enthralled by characters who are complex and emotional and not much different than myself, really. Those are the types of characters I strive to write. The story that Bob and I are writing is full of characters, some very profound and interesting, others largely one-sided and in desperate need of fleshing out. My favorite part of writing is creating the characters, learning their backgrounds. Yes, learning--for the characters are the ones who tell me about themselves, and I simply make a record of what they have to say. There is so much more to each character than what the reader finds on the page. But even though the life story is not delved into, the reader should be able to detect the dimensions that make up the character. The reader should know, just by reading, that this character is alive and full of history.

It's getting so late, and I'm getting carried away. I do actually have to go to work in the morning. Therefore, I will have to cut this off now. But there is much, much more to say...