As a lactose-intolerant vegetarian, my food choices are what many would classify as picky. I don’t eat any meat or fish and eat only a limited amount of dairy products (mostly just cheese). My decision to become a vegetarian was not environmentally motived (it all began with a severely undercooked hamburger), but my conscious decision to stay one has been influenced by my lessened environmental impact. My choice even pushed my family, who have always been big meat eaters, to cut back on their consumption (you’re welcome dad!). Many of the food choices I now make are influenced by the way I ate as a child though. I may have cut out the meat, but I still gravitate towards fresh organic produce. With a farmer for a brother and a childhood of memories of weeding our backyard garden, I think much of the way I eat now is a learned habit. I instinctively hear my brother’s voice lecturing on the difficulty of ever getting all the pesticides off of strawberries every time I’m tempted by my favorite fruit in the non- organic section of the supermarket.
Now while I love to gloat that my vegetarian lifestyle is lower impact than my meat eating counterparts, not all of my food choices are so stellar. I supplement the vegetables and fruits I buy at the farmers’ market with things like grapefruit. I know they’re sprayed with damaging pesticides and certainly not grown anywhere near here, but I find myself waiting in the line at Giant with a bag of grapefruits on a weekly basis regardless of the season. Avoiding all processed food, while environmentally the better choice, still alludes me as well. My love of fried potato products and chocolate cookies continually seems to trump my concern for the environment (or my health for that matter). So while I try and be good about my food choices-local, organic and in season when possible- I haven’t mastered it yet.
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