The issue of eating meat is a very contentious one, with people on both sides of the debate holding strong moral, ethical, economical and nutritional views.

In this short blog-post I’m not going to delve into those highly sensitive topics and weigh up one against the other – as that could easily turn into a 1000 page novel – but I did want to highlight some facts around how our high meat consumption is destroying not only our health, but our environment.

Years ago John Robbins, author of “Diet For A New America” printed a little book called “Realities For The ‘90’s” which outlined environmental and nutritional facts pertaining to our high meat consumption.

For example:
• Amount of U.S. cropland producing livestock feed: 64%
• Amount of U.S. cropland producing fruits and vegetables: 2%
• Calories of fossil fuel expended to produce 1 calorie of protein from beef: 78
• Calories of fossil fuel expended to produce 1 calorie of protein from legumes: 2
• Activity that accounts for more than half of all water consumed for all purposes in the United States: Livestock production
• The number of gallons of water needed to produce 1 edible pound of Tomatoes: 23, Carrots: 33, Grapes: 70, Beef: 5214

Well, you get the picture…

To produce the amount of meat that we are conditioned to eat in Western society, we are ruining the environment, wasting valuable resources and contributing to massive amounts of pollution.

With governments subsidising meat producing farmers, meat has become a very cheap commodity, when in reality the price should be much, much higher and a “luxury” item rather than an everyday staple in the diet.

Although I can be quite idealistic when it comes to picturing the “perfect world”, most often I can see a realistic step by step journey of getting there, or at least travelling in that direction.  And for many people, going instantly from meat three times a day seven days a week, to becoming a vegan or vegetarian, is not a realistic step and they refuse to even consider it.

So, for the average person in society, getting them to cut their meat consumption down to just 1 or 2 meals per week, rather than 21 meals per week is a realistic step, (once they learn some fantastic raw gourmet food preparation techniques, that is!) 

Just this one change would have an enormous impact on most people’s health, and it would also be saving our natural resources and our environment at the same time, although the people who make a living out of the meat industry would have something to say about that I’m sure!

Next time you’re meal planning, just give a thought to the above issues and make sure you plan a few vegetarian days in your week – your body ( and the planet) will thank you for it.

When I was younger I always got caught up in thinking that everyone else was better than I was and knew more than I did, and in my own mind I elevated many people onto a pedestal. 

I learned very painfully over the years, that very few people are who they appear to be, or who they project to the public, and I found that blatant hypocrisy in people quite a shock. 

Now I’m not expecting that everyone has to be perfect, but there is a level of integrity that I think shines through when you are coming from the heart.  I couldn’t in all honesty be a naturopath and teach people about healthy living, if I myself didn’t embrace those principles.  I would feel like a fraud.

It must be very stressful to project one image to the public, and then to live another. 

There are those of us who do our best to walk with integrity who can see the false web that people weave around themselves with their own self deception. 

There are also those that know all the right words and appear to be conscious and aware, but they have never really done the deep work, the depths of enquiry to meet yourself and know that you are accountable for who you are in this world. 

Then we have the “success junkies” who again have missed the point and think that if everyone just did their affirmations and watched “The Secret”, then they would have the perfect life.

Everyone is searching for answers, not only to health concerns, but to the bigger questions in life.  And although there are wonderful, special people out there that can teach us an enormous amount – the most profound insights are found within.

So keep on learning, but also keep in mind that you are just as important and have just as much to offer as the “guru” on the stage.  Have faith in yourself, be open to new information, but also know that we are all struggling along doing the best we can, and there’s no need to ever see yourself as less than anyone else.

That’s not a bad thought for the day

Last night I went to a talk by Dan Millman, author of the classic book “The Way of the Peaceful Warrior”, as well as many other inspirational writings.  I first read this book in the late 1980s and it encouraged me to think very deeply about the themes presented in it.  It became one of my favourite books, and I have read it many times over the years.

Two of the interesting topics that Dan mentioned in his talk, were the concepts of spirituality and enlightenment, and what it means to bring these ideals into our lives. 

People have varied impressions of what these concepts mean, and to many they see living “spiritually”,  in association with being a monk in a monastery and spending life in devotional meditation.

And in regards to enlightenment, one definition states that it is “characterized by the extinction of desire and suffering and individual consciousness”.

Which is why I have never aspired to be “enlightened” in that particular manner. 

To my way of thinking – we are here on earth as humans, with a complete range of feelings and emotions, desires and dreams – and to deny that, to aspire to leave those parts of our humanness behind, is to deny who we are in this world.

The range and depth of our feelings is what gives our world colour, texture and meaning.  If we transcend our very human feelings, then we are transcending what it means to be human.  If we weren’t meant to experience ourselves being human, then why are we here?

Dan spoke about a concept that I have been familiar with since reading his books 20 years ago, and that is about practicing spirituality whilst living in the real world.  As he says, it is easy to be “spiritual” whilst living as a monk, but try being “spiritual” when you have a full time job, family, mortgage, and the daily demands and pressures that we all face. 

Practicing the concepts of love, kindness, compassion, gratefulness and joy in these circumstances takes a strong and focused individual who will be constantly challenged.  This person gets the opportunity to “practice” these higher principles daily, in a way that the monk is never challenged to.

To me, everyday spirituality, living gently in the world rather than removing yourself from it, is something very worthwhile to aspire to.  We can use idealistic notions of transcendence as inspiration and guidance, rather than as a rule to live by.

That doesn’t mean that we stop growing and working on healing our stuck negative emotions and the harmful patterns we can get into – but it can mean losing the idea that you can’t experience spirituality and enlightenment in your life right now.

Even though it isn’t always easy, embracing the rhythms of life, the highs the lows and the moments of perfect grace, brings with it a deep sense of peace and gratefulness for all that it means to be human.

And that for me, is what enlightenment is all about.

One thing that I like to remind people of, is that they wield enormous power with the choices they make in how to spend their hard earned dollars.  If we want to see a change in our world, then we need to vote with our money, as to what industries we want to support and those we would rather not.

It’s not enough to sit and complain about industrialised meat processing, crop farming that uses pesticides, processed foods, the pharmaceutical industry etc – and then support those industries by purchasing their products.  If there is no demand then eventually the supply will die out.

Charles Eisenstein in his book The Yoga of Eating explains this very well:

“For example, suppose you eat a banana from a South American plantation, located on destroyed rain forest land wrested violently from indigenous tribes, who now labor at the plantation at starvation wages, using pesticides that pollute the ecosystem, shipped thousands of miles using polluting oil-fueled ships, by a company that puts small independent growers out of business through corrupt practices.  By eating that banana, you ever so slightly reinforce this state of affairs, and make it part of your reality and your experience. You are saying yes to such a world.

Or suppose you eat chicken from a battery-raised hen, who suffered her whole life in a tiny, crowded, filthy cage, pumped full of hormones and antibiotics, painfully debeaked to prevent her from wounding her cellmates in her extreme stress… raised, basically, in Hell.  Each time you eat such a chicken, you affirm the hellish suffering that brought it to you.”

Awareness of the choices we make on a day to day basis can have a profound impact on the world.  We think that our individual choices are not enough to create change – but they are – because if everyone made choices to support local organic and ethical industries – we would see a change.

What industries do your dollars support?