I walked to the ginormous flagship Whole Foods store for lunch today (yay for squeezing in exercise during the workday!) and met up with my friend Jenny. Jenny's a bestie from law school who is also an attorney here in Austin. As we sat outside and munched on our respective salads (see mine above... so colorful!), she told me about an incident on her recent ski trip to Colorado. Apparently one of the couples sharing the lodge told the group about their recent attempt to cook lobster (aka boil lobster) at home. Jenny told me that as she heard the story, she got sadder and sadder and almost started crying. How cruel and sad is it to boil an animal alive? Of course they clamber and hyperventilate and panic! And it's not that she didn't know it before, she just never thought about it. This, my friends, is known as lifting the veil.
She told me that the lobster story stuck with her all weekend, and that when she got back to Austin, she decided she would try to eat vegetarian for a month. I was so excited to hear it! Not that she is attempting vegetarianism (which is awesome), but that she was ready to start a conversation. Jenny wasn't terribly supportive of my decision to go vegan at first (she even told me she hoped I hated being vegan otherwise we could never dine together again), but since we surpassed that initial hump, she's been fabulous. She even liked my vegan mac 'n cheese! I love that she wants to start this discussion with me. We're planning to watch Food, Inc. together next week, and I'm ready to be there for all her questions.
It bugs me SO much when I hear people say they don't want to know about the food they eat. That they're too scared. Why? What are you afraid of? Knowledge is power, yes, but knowledge about how this country procures its massive amounts of meat & seafood is not necessarily going to turn an omnivore into a herbivore. And people, the veil must be lifted if we are ever going to see the end of factory farming. I love seeing that veil being lifted, especially for one of my dearest amies.
Anyway, this whole thing reminds me of this video I watched of John Robbins talking about how Julia Child gave up veal after visiting a veal farm. Kind of amazing, huh? I mean, this woman loved vegetarians just about as much as Anthony Bourdain does. Not a whole lot.
This makes me happy. How lucky she is to have such an amazing, supportive friend!
ReplyDeleteIt's so nice to be able to have thoughtful conversations with people - even if there is disagreement.
Also - definite yay for walking to Whole Foods!
this is wonderful. i'm sure jenny considers herself to be very lucky to have a fabby friend like you. hugs!!
ReplyDeletei love it. it baffles me to no end why people don't want to know where their food comes from!
ReplyDeleteUhmmmm hi. I don't know you but I LOVE your blog. I'm a vegetarian and want to be vegan but am having a tad bit of trouble doing it. It's a slow process but it's happening :) Anyways, congrats on being awesome.
ReplyDeleteEver since I saw Food, Inc. I've slowly moved away from eating meat. I'm at the point where it just kind of grosses me out. I've made it the whole week without meat (save for an english muffin sandwich from Starbucks that had turkey bacon in it) and I don't miss it at all. The thing I loved about Food, Inc. was that it didn't try to force people to abandon meat, but to understand where their meat was coming from. I found it to be very non-judgemental regarding your own personal eating choices and much more interested in opening our eyes. I'm glad your friend has made the connection between animals and food and has decided to take the plunge if only for a month. Honestly, I never thought of meat as previously being an animal until I got my dogs...
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