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Considerations for the new year: food
Jan. 3rd, 2020 10:31 amThe New Year celebrated on the 1st of January is a secondary new year to me. As a pagan, my new year was November 1st.
But the energy in the atmosphere at a new year is a good one to jump on and use.
It's hard, given the current state of things; internationally, nationally, environmentally, but I'm trying anyway.
One of the things I'm looking at is how to address the environmental choices I'm making. We do some, we used to do more, I'm trying to decide where to focus moving forward.
If we can't get governments to enact sweeping changes to deal with the excesses of corporations and the greed that is kiling us all...we're fucked. But I do also think small changes matter; I can't stop the world from burning, but I can help one animal at a time with the choices I make. Everyone loves that "it matters to this one" starfish story; that's what this is.
It occurred to me that I could work harder at my food choices. I'm stuck needing convenienct food, disability makes things harder. But I've been doing a good job for a while making choices at restaurants that avoid predator fish in favor of garbage fish (eating tuna and salmon is like eating tigers; eating tilapia and shrimp etc is much further down the food chain and therefore more sustainable. (Fish is a complicated topic I won't go into). I don't purchase tuna for my household anymore; the tuna change was recent, my kids are now old enough to stop being so picky about their proteins, which is why I"ve been buying tuna in the first place. I don't purchase pork for my house, but I do sometimes choose it at restaurants. I don't turn my nose up at any protein the food pantry provides though. We can't afford to; protein sources tend to be the more expensive parts of our diet.
I have, however, been not awesome at avoiding buying beef, and I know that is less sustainable than some other choices. Recently though my son has been moving away from cooking his hamburger helping with beef and instead is using canned chicken (no browning required). Since he is, I think we'll use the beef in the freezer and then I'll stop buying that.
For three years before my children I was a vegetarian. Unfortunately it is difficult for me to get enough protein and iron without meat. I know it can be done, but it can't be done easily and cooking is exhausting; most days I need those spell slots (known to many as "spoons") for other things. The more my body falls apart the more I have to find shortcuts I did not previously *have* to use.
This means things like laundry happen in a dryer, instead of us not owning a dryer and laundry happening on a clothesline. I just don't have the stamina to do the clothesline often. But this post is about food, so, returning to topic.
Meat consumption and how to aim it are relatively clean-cut choices. Now that the kids are older, I should be able to focus a bit less on "what can I get them to eat" and a bit more on "what is the best of the problematic choices that are on the table". I do still have to make some choices I might otherwise not; my kiddos weren't raised with the "what's on your plate is dinner, you can eat it now or have it for breakfast, but this is what's on offer". That method didn't mess with my brother, and it's how he raises his kids "eat what's in front of you". But it really messed with me, so at my house the kids have always had more free reign to have something else when they don't want what I'm fixing...and now that they are teens they mostly make their own food; I just have to keep what they like to eat in the house or they will live on crackers and pretzels.
I have, in the past six months or so, started making more choices around packaging. For many years I've been making choices based on glass over plastic, #1 and 2 plastic over other plastic, no I'm not putting produce in a plastic bag. But now I've started to make choices that aren't "what the best option for this food" and instead make choices that involve "this is wrapped in non-recycling plastic, or a ridic amount of packaging, so I'm just not buying it". This only applies to my food. THe kids' food continues to be "least bad option comes home with me". That's only for six more years though. Then my youngest will be an adult; and they can both buy their own food.
If we aren't all dying in the climate wars.
But the energy in the atmosphere at a new year is a good one to jump on and use.
It's hard, given the current state of things; internationally, nationally, environmentally, but I'm trying anyway.
One of the things I'm looking at is how to address the environmental choices I'm making. We do some, we used to do more, I'm trying to decide where to focus moving forward.
If we can't get governments to enact sweeping changes to deal with the excesses of corporations and the greed that is kiling us all...we're fucked. But I do also think small changes matter; I can't stop the world from burning, but I can help one animal at a time with the choices I make. Everyone loves that "it matters to this one" starfish story; that's what this is.
It occurred to me that I could work harder at my food choices. I'm stuck needing convenienct food, disability makes things harder. But I've been doing a good job for a while making choices at restaurants that avoid predator fish in favor of garbage fish (eating tuna and salmon is like eating tigers; eating tilapia and shrimp etc is much further down the food chain and therefore more sustainable. (Fish is a complicated topic I won't go into). I don't purchase tuna for my household anymore; the tuna change was recent, my kids are now old enough to stop being so picky about their proteins, which is why I"ve been buying tuna in the first place. I don't purchase pork for my house, but I do sometimes choose it at restaurants. I don't turn my nose up at any protein the food pantry provides though. We can't afford to; protein sources tend to be the more expensive parts of our diet.
I have, however, been not awesome at avoiding buying beef, and I know that is less sustainable than some other choices. Recently though my son has been moving away from cooking his hamburger helping with beef and instead is using canned chicken (no browning required). Since he is, I think we'll use the beef in the freezer and then I'll stop buying that.
For three years before my children I was a vegetarian. Unfortunately it is difficult for me to get enough protein and iron without meat. I know it can be done, but it can't be done easily and cooking is exhausting; most days I need those spell slots (known to many as "spoons") for other things. The more my body falls apart the more I have to find shortcuts I did not previously *have* to use.
This means things like laundry happen in a dryer, instead of us not owning a dryer and laundry happening on a clothesline. I just don't have the stamina to do the clothesline often. But this post is about food, so, returning to topic.
Meat consumption and how to aim it are relatively clean-cut choices. Now that the kids are older, I should be able to focus a bit less on "what can I get them to eat" and a bit more on "what is the best of the problematic choices that are on the table". I do still have to make some choices I might otherwise not; my kiddos weren't raised with the "what's on your plate is dinner, you can eat it now or have it for breakfast, but this is what's on offer". That method didn't mess with my brother, and it's how he raises his kids "eat what's in front of you". But it really messed with me, so at my house the kids have always had more free reign to have something else when they don't want what I'm fixing...and now that they are teens they mostly make their own food; I just have to keep what they like to eat in the house or they will live on crackers and pretzels.
I have, in the past six months or so, started making more choices around packaging. For many years I've been making choices based on glass over plastic, #1 and 2 plastic over other plastic, no I'm not putting produce in a plastic bag. But now I've started to make choices that aren't "what the best option for this food" and instead make choices that involve "this is wrapped in non-recycling plastic, or a ridic amount of packaging, so I'm just not buying it". This only applies to my food. THe kids' food continues to be "least bad option comes home with me". That's only for six more years though. Then my youngest will be an adult; and they can both buy their own food.
If we aren't all dying in the climate wars.
