Common Ground: The Flexitarian’s Dilemma

July 2008 | From the Editor

The Flexitarian’s Dilemma

By Eliza Thomas

I consider myself an omnivore. But lately, I have been faltering. While I’ve always indulged in animal products — with, I will admit, an enthusiastic emphasis on cheese — more and more I’ll go days or even weeks without them and not notice. It helps that we’re smack in the middle of that magical season in which luscious foods grow right out of the ground. It also helps that our downtown office neighborhood is a mecca of vegan-friendly lunch spots (the CG staff tends to migrate between Power Source, Medicine, Mixt Greens and Samovar).

At home, I’ve been whipping up veggie feasts with the assistance of two cookbooks that found their way into the Common Ground review pile: The Modern Ayurvedic Cookbook: Healthy, Healing Recipes for Life, by Amrita Sondhi (Arsenal Pulp Press) and Extra VeganZa: Orginal Recipes From Phoenix Organic Farm by Laura Matthias (New Society Publishers). I can’t endorse them strongly enough; Anyone who’s doubted her ability to pull off soul-satisfying vegan meals will find confidence and kitchen inspiration in these titles, as well as one of the greatest cornbread recipes of all time (ExtraVeganZa’s red pepper and hempseed — ridiculously good).

I am pleased by my herbivore tendencies because, as the editor of this fine publication, I know good and well the persuasive arguments for veg living. Meat is murder, there is no doubt. It’s hard on your health, it’s hard on the planet, and given the recently skyrocketing costs of grain, it’s prohibitively expensive too. Still (welcoming the letters this statement may provoke), while I might eat veg most of the time, I’m not ready to quit cold turkey.
As Gregory Dicum discusses in this month’s feature story, “Veg-o-lution,” food identity politics are often (over)wrought with passion. “Nothing is more personal than what we put into our bodies,” Dicum, himself a vegan, writes. “Somewhere, deep in our psyches, ‘what you’re eating is disgusting’ turns into ‘YOU are disgusting.’” Dicum goes on to diffuse the conversation by encouraging vegan-curious readers like me to maintain our incremental, plate-by-plate steps. It’s a far more palatable approach than the stereotypical screed, and a gentle way to transition into healthier living.

Eating is culture, and ours is changing. In April, Animal rights group PETA made an ambitious public wager: one million dollars to the first scientist who develops in vitro (lab-grown) chicken meat by 2012. In June, Oprah waved her magic wand and turned millions of acolytes on to the veg life — not to mention gardening and the entire concept of dietary cleanses — by publicly embarking on 21 days off sugar, alcohol, caffeine, gluten and animal products. And if the two-year waitlist at my local community garden is any indication, Michael Pollan’s Earth Day exhortation to start gardening has hit home too (never fear fellow waitlisters; read on for other ways to get your hands in the soil).

It’s a good taste revolution, and I feel blessed to be in the thick of it with you. Here’s to vegan ice cream, overflowing CSA boxes, biodynamic wine and all of life’s delicious pleasures.

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