I have been thinking a lot about veganism for the past year or so.
I became vegetarian in high school about 6 years ago. I stayed strictly vegetarian for about 4 years. During that time, I slowly became lactose intolerant, probably because of how much more cheese I was eating, since that used to be an acceptable protein substitute in a vegetarian option. When I went to China, I decided to not be vegetarian anymore, since everything is made with pork and I wanted to try different foods without worrying whether or not they were cooked with meat or something. Since I was lactose intolerant, I already had restrictions to worry about.
When I came back from China, I wanted to experiment with veganism. In the UK, I had access to soy yogurt, avocados, hummus, Linda McCartney sausages (if you know, you know), quinoa, plant protein powder, and the list goes on. I still ate eggs and honey, but a lot of the time I made vegan food. At this point my primary concern with plant-based diets was the restrictions and finding good options.
But lately, I’ve had this niggling feeling that there are some other issues I hadn’t been considering. Every time I picked up an avocado that was from Israel or Morocco or somewhere equally far away, I couldn’t help but feeling that any environmental impact of not supporting the meat or dairy industries was being cancelled out by the journey of this avocado from Israel or Morocco.
Another issue I had was with the bag of quinoa that I had in my cupboard. Not only was this also shipped all the way from South America, but I read that because the grain was so highly sought after in the West, the people for whom quinoa is native and a staple food can no longer afford to eat it. For me, this highlights a more-often-than-not ignored aspect of these trendy superfoods. It’s one thing to know that your avocado made the journey across the entirety of a continent just to be a part of your breakfast, but it’s another to know that you are taking away a staple food from someone’s diet. Quinoa is more expensive than chicken for the people who grow it.
I got thinking about this because I listened to the most recent episode of Adulting, which was about Fast Fashion and sustainability.
A really important thing to note at this point is that if you want to be ‘woke’ to these kinds of issues, there is a lot of pressure to be woke to all issues – to be the perfect vegan/sustainability person/feminist/etc. It takes so much energy to make all of these decisions, to find the most eco-friendly ingredient, and to read about the issues. It’s impossible to be perfect and for every decision you make to be a sustainable act, but it isn’t impossible to talk about these things. For instance, I feel that it’s easier for me to put my energy into reading about the food I eat than to know which clothing brands are evil and which are okay.
The thing that really prompted me to write this down is that Iceland’s Christmas advert this year has been BANNED for being too political. It’s about how Iceland is not using palm oil in their products because palm oil production is causing deforestation and affecting the habitats of animals such as orangutans. The interesting thing is that palm oil is found in all kinds of things, but especially in free-from and vegan products, such as granola bars and dairy-free sweets. For a lot of people trying to make a more ‘sustainable’ choice by choosing something that’s dairy-free or vegan, they’re also contributing to a very unsustainable issue without necessarily knowing. Personally, I have struggled with this because often there isn’t an option for something that’s dairy-free AND palm-oil-free. And if there is, I often didn’t have the time or money to seek it out.
This is the point where I feel like I don’t know what to do. I haven’t been buying avocados regularly for about 8 months. I have only bought that one pack of quinoa in the past four years or so (but how many times has it been in store-bought or restaurant-made food I’ve eaten?). I feel good about those decisions, but I still feel like I want to do more.
One easy decision I have made is to eat more local and seasonal produce. Luckily, now that I live in North Carolina, I have a lot more seasonal and local produce available than in Scotland, where there were only a handful of things grown locally in winter. I want to put more effort into knowing what’s local and what’s in season and changing my diet with the seasons.
In China, as far as produce, you could really ONLY get seasonal stuff. And I felt very influenced by the price. When something was in season, it was super cheap, so I could eat like one pomelo a day in November, but by December I was eating more strawberries (because that’s the season in southern China). You had to be on the ball in May, when the bayberries were out, because the season is so short. They’re only really good for a couple of weeks. This is such a natural thing, though. In a convenience-driven society, and only getting access to produce for a short time each year is not convenient.
We need to shift our mentality and appreciate when things are in season. If you can only eat bayberries (or whatever it may be) for 2-4 weeks a year, you should appreciate that time and look forward to it. It’s a special time. And you know what, next month something else will come into season and you will have something else to get excited about. This is the kind of mentality I have been trying to adopt.
I don’t know if there’s a point to this other than that we can always learn more about where our food comes from and about how we can do a better job at making less of a negative impact on the environment, no matter how small those steps are.
Cover image via Google Images
