A Year of Eating Differently

Three years ago my wife and I decided to go a year without eating fast food. Well almost a year. We gave ourselves six free passes to indulge. We had a few reasons that inspired us to do so including our own health and our concern over the way fast food impacts our environment and food culture among other things. It also was just a fun little challenge. No Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, etc. We haven't made it explicit in the years following but we eat almost no major corporation fast food anymore.

This year my attention has turned to meat. Now, I am a true meat lover. I by no means want to give up pancetta, aged porterhouse steaks, king salmon, or roasted chickens. However I am compelled by many reasons to eat much less meat. Not my taste buds mind you, they're craving it more than ever. Its the ethical, environmental, and to some degrees the health aspects of eating SO MUCH meat. The conditions under which most animals are raised for the industrial food complex is staggeringly cruel. As we become further and further separated from the source of our food, I don't think most people would have much of an appetite if they were able to follow the path of the pig all the way to the bacon on their plate. In addition, it is producing serious environmental repercussions. This is probably the most alarming in the case of fish. I made a list of some recent articles about this.

So for 2008 we are going to be "half-a-vegetarians." Fifteen days, and at least one seven consecutive day stretch, of each month will be meatless. We get a great box of vegetables each week from our CSA box at Terra Firma Farms and we live in veggie friendly San Francisco. Plus it's not like we're going without meat. Just trying to eat less. The meat we do eat will hopefully come mostly from sources that are sustainable, humane, responsibly produced. Eggs, milk, cheese, oysters, clams, mussels are fair game for veggie days. We're not going "half-a-vegan" after all!

We'll try to update this blog as to what we're eating, recipes and the general experience. We're kicking off this New Year with our first seven day stretch.