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Keeping it growing |
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Keeping it growing: Beyond Veganby Jesse Dutton Miller I have a lot of respect for vegans. I have a lot of respect for anyone who thinks about how their lifestyle and diet impact the landscapes of the earth and the people, plants and animals that live there. I think it's great to make an effort to have a diet that causes no harm to the planet. But, at the risk of becoming the least popular CPJ columnist, I have to say that I also think that a vegan diet isn't always the best means towards this end. In my class we've been reading the cookbook Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, which makes the case that quality animal products are an essential part of the human diet. After years in which saturated fats were considered unhealthy by most Americans, Fallon's book is part of a new paradigm in nutrition which has gained a lot of following. She cites vegetable fats including hydrogenated oils and sugar as some of the causes of America's major health problems. In my opinion she goes a little far out in the effort to make her point and certainly her discussion of the enviornmental side of animal food leaves something to be desired. But her basic message is worth listening to. I agree with vegan propaganda in that the treatment of animals in commercial meat and dairy facilties is shameful. I try to avoid eating anything that comes from factory farms, especially animals. Certainly cattle grazing, at least in the arid west, is an arrogant and inefficient practice that is destroying fragile shrub-steppe ecosystems. But then, eating some wild venison (deer are overpopulated here), or some chickens raised on a local farm that have been fed vegetable scraps and grain, is a slightly different story. It's important to discriminate among meat products just as we descriminate among the various vegetables and grains that are available to us. One problem with a vegan diet is that it is often very reliant on soy, which has some rather dubious nutritional and environmental qualities. Soy contains high amounts of phytates, acids which bind with nutrients and keep your body from absorbing them. The only way to completely get rid of the phytates in your soy is to ferment it into tempeh, natto, or miso. Soy is one of the world's three biggest crops; it is often grown as a monoculture which is destructive to the land, and it is commonly genetically modified. Although you're not directly killing animals by eating soy, it's important to consider that animals die from habitat loss to agriculture. If you want to increase animal foods in your life, a good way to do it is keep chickens in your backyard or buy meat from a local organic farmer. It's certainly a lot easier to keep chickens as a source of protein through eggs and meat than it is to grow enough soybeans to provide a similar amount of food in the same space! Being vegan as a foremost nutritional policy can also distract from the importance of local food. Tofu and tahini are rarely produced around here, while local eggs, meat, and dairy products are abundant. There are a lot of people out there with a lot of different ideas about what we should eat. It's easy to get caught up in someone's perfect diet and forget to listen to your body as your number one guide. If vegan food makes you feel super, more power to you, as long as you can eat in an ecological way. Vegans are on the right track in thinking about where their food comes from and how its production effects the world. But too often this creative contemplation is reduced to a dogmatic diet composed of a very few, particular foods (especially soy) which are not necessarily produced more ecologically than any other food. Here at the Evergreen farm, our animals serve purposes beyond just growing food; they fit into the dynamic relationships on the farm that keep our local economy and ecology rich. In our orchard, free-range ducks eat insects and fertilize the soil. They help keep slugs out of our crops. Some Practice of Sustainable Agriculture students have choosen to study ecological methods of animal food production this quarter. Our farm will be acquiring meat chickens (in addition to our large laying flocks of chickens and ducks) as well as turkeys this quarter. We will also have goats for their mohair production. One student is learning about methods of animal slaughtering with a local slaughterer. We are also raising more baby chicks for increasing our laying flock! Of course we'll keep growing lots of vegetables so even you vegans will be included. <italics>Jesse Emerson Sequoia Sempervirons Dutton Miller is a senior enrolled in the Practice of Sustainable Agriculture. He works at the TESC Childrens' Center.
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The Center for Ecological Learning and Living Evergreen Organic FarmLocation:2712 Lewis Rd, Olympia, WA 98505 Phone: (360) 867-6160 Organic Farm Manager: Melissa Barker Academic Faculty Contact: Martha Rosemeyer Farm Caretakers: Community Gardens Coordinator:
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