For food in a world where many walk in hunger;
for faith in a world where many walk in fear;
for friends in a world where many walk alone;
we give you humble thanks, O God. Amen
Table Grace -- Canadian Food Grains Bank
One sabbath [Jesus] was going through the grainfields;
and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.
The Pharisees said to him,
“Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?”
Mark 2:23-24
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Michael Pollan
On our way back to Ontario from my settlement charge in outport Newfoundland many years ago we stopped at my in-laws to show off our newborn son. Somehow my late mother-in-law got on to her conviction that eating meat and potatoes was what God intended and her suspicions about the cultish Vegetable People, meaning vegetarians, of course. We diplomatically kept silent, but through the decades we've looked at one another and intoned "the Vegetable People!" in response to a story on the benefits of vegetarianism or veganism.
I'll admit to being "hardened in sin" when it comes to a vegetarian diet. I do enjoy a wide range of veggies (although get behind me, parsnips and beets) but the many conversations about increasing the number of meatless meals in our home have not led to true repentance and change of habit. We have reduced our consumption of red meat over time and I have genuinely enjoyed many vegetarian meals but...well, I could do so much better
Enter the latest Canada Food Guide which does not suggest we give up meat but invites us to get necessary protein from other sources as well. Essentially it encourages a plant-based diet, which is the reality for billions of people on the planet.
As a Christian I've known for decades that not only is eating this way is better for my health but it is more just in terms of the equitable sharing of resources so that all may be fed. I think we owned a copy of Diet for a Small Planet, a book which is now nearly 50 years old. Increasingly we are aware that eating a plant-based diet can make a difference in terms of greenhouse gases and planetary health.
So? I'm gonna try, harder, honest I am. If James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger say "less meat, less heat, it must be true, right? I'm not saying that I'm joining the cult of the Vegetable People, but I may become a more committed Flexitarian. I figure that's what Jesus was, what with the fish and the grain and all, so it's good enough for me.
2 comments:
I have fully embraced eating plant-based meals the vast majority of the time. I may eat meat a couple of times a month. I definitely do not lecture people who eat meat frequently, as that was how I was raised. But I definitely feel better when I get my protein from chickpeas or beans rather than meat. I do think it's a healthier way to go too. And to top it off, I'm an animal lover, and I've passed way too many of those trucks that are carrying pigs and cows to slaughter. It turns me off meat more each time I see them.
Ya, those trucks haunt us as well, and we see them on the highways in intense heat and numbing cold. Well done Roger, and may the Grand Chickpea be with you!
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