Flexitarianism!

Now that I have gotten myself over my initial irritation with people who say they are vegetarians and then go on to list exceptions including fish and chicken I can now chuckle when I hear comments like, "I am a convenient vegetarian" whilst this person orders a shrimp dish at a Chinese restaurant.

One time I even heard a girl declaring herself a vegetarian saying she didn't eat beef but she did eat pork!  It was cute, like she was attaching herself to a trend or a style rather than an ethic or health choice.

I'm not sure why this has bothered me 'cause who really cares?  I guess because the reason for being a "vegetarian" is often for ecological and ethical reasons and any life taken for food is considered himsa (violence).  So when people say they are vegetarian but still eat flesh, I wonder why they just don't say, "I eat a whole food, plant based diet" or something like that?

It's perplexing. When asked about my eating habits have taken to saying, I am a "Miratarian."  I just eat what I eat for the reasons of my choosing.  It's not so cut and dried.  I consume very small quantities of dairy products compared with the average American but I am not vegan.   I will occasionally eat an egg so I am not even a vegetarian, but why must we label ourselves by our food preferences?

Then today, I came across this oh-so-very-American-I-did-it-my-way phrase, "Flexitarian!"  Perfect!  This is was the comment -  "Lacto-ovo vegetarian? Forget the old rules: flexitarianism lets you choose where to draw the line."   Ironically, it is from Plenty Magazine...

Whew!  No more confusion.  No more irritation or little white lies.  Flexitarian includes everyone...except the 850 million malnourished people in the world who don't get to choose where to draw the line.  The world hunger site reports that children are the most visible victims of malnutrition. Malnutrition plays a role in at least half of the 10.9 million child deaths each year--five million deaths.

“Far from decreasing, the number of hungry people in the world is currently increasing – at the rate of four million a year,” reported Dr Diouf, speaking in Rome in October 2006 at the launch of the annual FAO report, The State of Food Insecurity in the World, or SOFI.

Oddly -bizarrely- with 850 MILLION malnourished people in the world, obesity is on the rise at an alarming rate.

In a August 2006 BBC article, Professor Popkin, from the University of North Carolina, said that... obesity was rapidly spreading....  The report stated that there are now more overweight people across the world than hungry ones, according to experts.

Professor Popkin had the clever suggestion that food prices could be used to manipulate people's diets and tilt them towards healthier options.

"For instance, if we charge money for every calorie of soft drink and fruit drink that was consumed, people would consume less of it. "If we subsidies fruit and vegetable production, people would consume more of it and we would have a healthier diet."

Well, money does talk.  Currently it seems to completely possess us and enslave us and make us completely bereft of rational thinking skills.

What if, instead of labeling ourselves based on our food choices we did something a little more radical?  What if we all called ourselves, instead of carnivores or omnivores or vegetarians or flexitarians, we all called ourselves....humanitarians?  radical, I know.

Honestly, who thinks of the humanitarian implications of their food choices?  More and more of us do I dare say.  There is a very large food revolution going on towards local family farms, toward organic, toward sustainability.  An article in Conscious Choice this month talks about knowing where food comes from and who produced it.  Can you trace the history of your food?  What a fun way to shop with kids. It would be like a cool treasure hunt, a mystery unfolding -find the source of this item!

This is where money really can talk. Simply, so very simply, we just stop purchasing items that have an unknown story.  This may pose a bit of a challenge at first but as with all interesting endeavors, with a little practice, it becomes a part of our way of being with the world.  Very humane.  The simple act of buying locally can free up food in other parts of the world.  Farm subsidies in this country, largely for factory farms, makes an African farmer's crop undervalued.

I would be happy to jump in my canoe and paddle out into Lake Michigan right here across the street and catch myself a big salmon (is there salmon in Lake Michigan?).  I would be happy to take on the energies of a salmon -strong swimmer, beautiful pink flesh.  I just can't participate in the process by which a salmon at a good restaurant in Chicago has arrived on my plate.  What about everything else I  eat?  Where did the Gruyere cheese on my vegetable croque monsieur I ate for lunch today come from?  I don't know.  And it probably wouldn't fit in with my criteria for being a humanitarian eater.  But here is where I begin, meal by meal.  That is why I came up with this Miratarian.  Everyday is a whole new set of choices.  I just do the best I can in each moment.  Some days are better than others.

Next time someone asks me if I am a vegetarian, I don't have to say I am a Miratarian or flexitarian, I can simply say, "I am a humanitarian"