Reason #5995 why I hate PETA


Sigh.

On a slight tangent, I'm reading Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food" (I loved his Omnivore's Dilemma so much, but it was mostly about the environmental ethics and economics of our food system, not what that means for our health).

I've been pondering my own relationship with food and my self-image. I sort of have a post written up in my head, but I'm hesitant to post it because I actually have a very good relationship with food and my own body, and definitely fall on the "skinny" side of things. So I'm a bit afraid of insulting somebody, despite the fact that my thoughts are hardly "I have willpower about food so I'm not overweight, nyah!" (Because that's neither true nor kind.)

It's sort of me trying to pick apart why unlike what seems like every single woman my age, and ten years in either direction (if not more) I don't have a heck of a lot of doubt about how I look. I feel like I got really lucky there, and I've been going over my life to figure out how I ended up here, because damn, I want my daughters (and sons) to have the same perspective. I think my attitudes toward food are pretty intertwined with it, so it sort of all goes together in the end. A lot of what Pollan says about how we eat in North America - and though I think we're a tiny bit better in Canada because we don't have powerful food lobby groups, we still eat much the same as Americans - rings true for me, especially because I think I've been able to avoid the worst of it.

And, if I go much longer I'll actually write the post accidentally, so we'll leave it there. More to the point: PETA's made up of assholes, sorry.

Also, I think I'm going to try and have a "Spend Nothing Month" in September. It probably won't start until I'm back from camping (because sometimes when camping you just need to buy a spoon because you forgot all yours) but from Sept. 9th to Oct. 9th would work, assuming I've already bought my textbooks. Obviously, things like bathroom products and groceries are allowed, but not much else. Eating food out would only be okay if it was a social thing (and not "I was too lazy to pack a lunch"), but no more random coffees*, off-the-cuff iTunes downloads, clothes, nail polish & make-up... actually I can't think of anything else I randomly buy. But this will probably (a) be harder than I'm anticipating and (b) save me all that "where did that thirty dollars disappear to?" lost money.

There are a few things like this I'd like to do, to be more active about the social issues I think and read about, but most of them will probably wait until I move out of my parents house. Things like cutting out all processed foods, being aggressive in how much non-recyclable, non-composting waste I produce (and therefore purchase - like trying not to buy food products in non-recyclable containers, shunning blister packs as much as possible), being more aware of what impact the brands I purchase have on the world, using "natural" household cleaners rather than the chemical ones, trying not to use the car unless absolutely necessary, and so on and so forth. The boy and I are really interested in putting energy in those directions when we move back in together, and I think picking apart our consumer habits and lifestyle will be really interesting and worth the time. We were lazy in the past when neither of us had the spoons for it, but I think now we do.

*I might keep going to my local organic "more than" fair trade coffeeshop, because that's something I feel like supporting as a consumer.