by steelie -

tofu…

Well at the risk of sounding all “woe is me”, there hasn’t really been much to write about in the last “little” while. In all fairness, what I should say, I guess there hasn’t been anything worth updating more than of my one-too-many-statuses.

That being said, this past weekend I made the big decision to go vegetarian.
It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time now — I actually gave it pathetically half-ass clichéd effort back in art college — but have really only recently thought seriously about it. Thankfully, my wife is and boys are pretty much already vegetarian — my boys prefer the veggie version of most anything meat-based I eat.
Why? Well, for a number of reasons… reasons which I plan to research more as to be more informed about my decision but reasons enough (for me) to go veggie all the same.
Money…
*sigh* I honestly wish I could say this weren’t the catalyst for the decision but it was the big (recent) thing that made me go, “Huh… do I really need to eat meat?” Believe me, I know it’s possible to find great deals on meat depending on at which stores you shop but I’ve been trying to consume only free range and/or organic meats and they’re not cheap.
I had my last big meat meal Saturday evening. We (the boys and I) had chicken fajitas made with two boneless chicken breasts… that was almost $15 worth of chicken.
See?
I know I could get meat cheaper but I, personally, am terrified by how these larger farms/companies can sell so much volume for so little. I’ll skip the antibiotics unless I’m sick, thanks.
Environment…
This is one of the areas which I would definitely like to research more. I’ve read a number of different sources recently, that trumpet going vegetarian as a way to help the environment: Times Online UK, David Suzuki Foundation, and numerous other vegetarian sites that are, of course, all for the cause (peta.org, vegsoc.org …).
Going vegetarian is supposed to help in a number of ways but mostly in how little energy and water is used to produce it compared to meat. According to the David Suzuki Foundation, it takes almost 85 times more water to produce 10 ounces of beef than potatoes.
But, yeah… like I said, this is the area I definitely want/need to research more.
Not having to kill animals for my meals…
I know this one might seem old to some people but I’ve always enjoyed eating meat but have never liked associating eating meat with eating a dead animal — always boneless chicken, always ground beef, always sliced ham. For the longest time I could never bring myself to eat a full chicken breast or wings because it looked… so… dead-bird-like.
I dunno… maybe it is weird but I figure if I can’t stand the idea of actually eating other living things, what better reason to stop eating them?
Health…
I have far too many food sensitivities right now and I reeeeeeally just want to be able to go through a day without feeling like I’ve got a mild stomach flu. Which I don’t.
I’m hoping going vegetarian will help me pay more attention to what goes into various foods so that I might only have the rarest of days where “Betty” is upset.
SO, there you have it… that’s what’s new with me. I’ll try to keep the post more frequent now… this foray into vegetarianism should give me plenty to complain update about over the next little while.
Peace. :^)
</steelie>

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by steelie -

QotD: I’m Going Green

Happy Earth Day!  What are some of your favorite ways to reduce, reuse and recycle?

Well, this question couldn’t have at better time for this mini rant…

One of my favourite enviro-friendly things I do (one of the ones I’m prouder of too) is my no-styro rule. I (in general practice*) refuse to use Styrofoam anything. Especially daily consumed “anythings”, like coffee cups, takeout containers, plates… either way, you get my point. At work, I even have a small Rubber Maid container for when I don’t bring my lunch and have to buy food from one of many local vendors… an trend that has caught on with others in my office. At one point, I think we had five of us toting around these reusable containers, often getting weird looks from the vendors until they got used to us. I also have a mug at my desk that I use when I go to get coffee.

Thermos E5
Thermos E5

My wife, ladyshark, and I tend to on the same page for a lot of the enviro issues, which is great. Infact, we both have these heavy duty Thermos travel mugs that we use when we allow ourselves to indulge in the increasingly frequent occasional latte. In addition, we usually tried to steer clear of establishments that use Styrofoam cups. However, yesterday we thought, “Well, we have our own cups… what’s the big deal?”

What’s the big deal, indeed…

Nothing really, unless (whilst your partner is concurrently returning shoes at a different store, you look away briefly to tend to your toddler who has managed to explode the bulk of a large muffin over his new sweater) the person making your latte uses two SEPARATE Styrofoam cups to measure out the soy “milk” for your drinks. I couldn’t believe it… but didn’t say anything because at that point, I knew those cups where destined for the garbage and, as a general rule, I’m not out to make enemies. Thus my silence. However, I briefly look back at Little “L” to again tend to the muffin shrapnel in his hair when once again, I look back to see her preparing our drinks in TWO OTHER Styrofoam cups… seriously, “WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY” (WTF) LADY!

Times like this I wish I were “slightly” more confrontational… I mean, COME ON! We brought our own bullletproof mugs that will last us forever so that we could avoid using disposable cups that  would end up just sitting in the landfill forever.

“Oh, oops. I forgot [to think about what it is that I’m doing to the environment every time I throw one of these cups in the garbage]!”
Shut up. Please.

****SELF-RIGHTEUOS-RANT WARNING****

People please, if you are going to go out and buy coffee/tea everyday, purchase yourselves a nice mug that will last you a while. Most places (in Canada anyway) will even give you a 10-15 cent discount on your beverage. So this way, instead of throwing out over 240 disposable cups a year (multiply that by the number of hot beverages you consume each day at work) you could be saving almost $40 a year (now multiply that by the number of hot beverages you consume each day at work).

At least Oprah has hopped on the bio-deisel-bandwagon with her show last week about all the little things we can do to be a bit more environmentally friendly everyday… Now, an entire flock of people will ONLY NOW start thinking about these issues thanks to Oprah. Holy “Friday” that woman has a lot of influence… Of course now, she’ll probably get sued by slew of companies that produce disposable products. Sorry “Swifter”, Oprah just knocked your stock down a few pegs… Time to sue. Make some of that money back.

Okay, okay. That was a serious digression.

Long story short… buy a nice mug. If you and nine other people in your office decided to make this change, you would collectively be contibuting 2400 fewer disposable cups to the landfill every year. If ten people at ten different companies did the same, there would 24,000 fewer… and in ten different cities, 240,000 fewer… 10 provinces/states, 2,400,000 fewer… and then if all of this were carried out across a mere 10 countries on this planet, 24,000,000 fewer disposable cups would be added to the landfill every year… Multiply that by the number of hot beverages you consume each day at work.

Now go hug a tree… they’re a big reason you breathe.
—
steelie

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