Animal, Vegetable, Miserable

Gary Steiner gives some very hard challenges that vegans face in his essay “Animal, Vegetable, Miserable.” It’s hard to believe that in the 15 years he has been a vegan he has only made 5 other friends that are vegan. It takes a very dedicated and unwavering person to stand by their beliefs while they lose friends and alienate themselves. He is obviously very passionate about being vegan but he does not seem very happy. I think he is talking about himself in the title when he mentions miserable.  To me life is about the pursuit of happiness. I think we all need something to be compassionate about and fight for, but what if that thing we are so focused on standing up for is the only thing we have a connection with anymore? I understand that vegans have an issue with using animals as a support system to live when they have obviously proved there are ways around it. I don’t think there needs to be such an extreme point of view that makes someone feel they can’t even eat around other people. I’m still new to the vegan diet and everything that does or doesn’t come along with it. I think that vegans want what most people who are aware of where their food comes from want, and that is for more humane ways of obtaining food or alternatives for animal products. There is common ground here. Steiner argues that as humans we feel that we are more superior to non-human animals due to our egocentric and anthropocentric views. For me this seems like a no-brainer. I’ve always been taught about food chains and unless there is a T-Rex walking around somewhere that I don’t know about this means that humans are the top. We’ve evolved and developed into the most intelligent and awesome lifeform on this planet. Part of that is because we survived by killing and scavenging anything that stood in our way. I’m thankful for everything my ancestors have done to get me where I am today. Sure there are problems with how we mass produce our food. That doesn’t mean we need to take a stand that is so extreme it alienate ourselves from our own species. Instead of looking at ways we are different we need to come together and look at how we are the same. That’s when I feel we can actually start making a difference.

Service Learning Post #2

Finally we have some nice weather after the stormy weekend and pretty much all last week. The weather was perfect while a dozen or so UNCA students helped harvest and work on the Lord's Acre. This was my third time time out there and this time I got to do even more than the last couple times. We separated cloves of garlic for seed harvesting, which is way harder than it sounds. I am a garlic fanatic. I asked Sarah, one of the interns there, if it was possible to grow garlic in my apartment. Possibly on a window sill since that's the only actual sunlit area I could 'plant' something. She suggested it would be better if I grew herbs instead because garlic has long roots which would take up my whole window almost.

Academically there are social and agricultural lessons to learn at the Lord's Acre that can't be pulled from a text. There are so many different ways to grow food in the demo garden. From growing straight out of hay bails to using the natural lay of the land to get the most out of rainfall. From the picture above you can just see how amazing the garden looks with the help of volunteers from all over the community.

Getting to interact with other students outside of school isn't something I get to do much with my busy schedule. It was awesome to be able to sit around and get to know more about some of the students while helping out at the same time. I learned a lot about the way certain plants are grown, and actually getting to see the man-power that goes into cultivating those amazing crops was enlightening. I always knew it took a lot of work but getting to see it first hand solidified it.

There's always room for improvement no matter where we go. Someone is always in need of help. I will strive to continue helping my community wherever I live. I won't always be here in Asheville but at least when I leave here I'll know that I helped contribute to make it a better place than it already was when I first came here.

Supersize Issue and Obesity Outlook

      While reading the article “Downsizing Supersize” by James Surowiecki I found myself agreeing that the supersizes of the amount of food that we can purchase is getting out of control. There are soft-drink cups, or buckets as I like to call them, which literally will not fit in a standard cup holder in my cars. More recently I have only asked for water if I dine in or if I’m picking up food I won’t get anything to drink until I get home. Most of the article focused on New York potentially banning extra-large soft-drinks but I think there is also a problem with the amount of solid food that fast food joints can shovel out for such low prices. I’m all about getting more bang for my buck but it would be nice if instead of two double cheeseburgers for $2 I could get a chicken salad for the same price but still be satisfied. I used to be the kid that would down 4 double cheeseburgers before a baseball game and not think twice about it. Now I think three of four times about it and continually remind myself that even though I can get a lot of food for cheap doesn’t mean I need it. It doesn’t surprise me that during the M&M study at the apartment building people would take more candy with a larger scoop. I bet it didn’t even occur to them that they were taking a lot because the scoop set the serving size which on that scale doesn’t seem like much but the food industry has been increasing the scoop for over 40 years!

       Dhruv Khular brings up an extremely blunt approach to decreasing obesity in Georgia. It somewhat reminded me of the crystal meth and other assortment of anti-drug commercials. There are stark contrasts between drug abuse and obesity but the medium through which these problems are addressed can promote the same awareness. I’m not sure I agree with government intervention at the moment but using a very open mind I can see how it might be needed. Just like how the government has regulated the distribution of narcotics which are hazardous to our health with side effects occurring almost immediately, there could be a need in the future to regulate unhealthy food distribution even though the side effects are more difficult to see until they happen.