Embracing Food

I've been kind of sitting on this post all day. Usually I don't care what I say, but I do have friends with varying diets and so I want to preface this that I'm not picking on anyone in particular, but I have to vent a little.

More beautiful farmer's market finds, including my weakness, beets.

I don't get the sanctimonious attitude some vegetarians and vegans (more so, it seems, with vegans) get about other people eating meat. I don't get up in their faces saying "hey, vegan, eat some meat! Why don't you eat this succulent meat?!" No. I accept that it means more meat for me and for the close friends, I just make sure that, if they're starting out exploring a vegan diet they know where to get protein (being poor, I investigate various protein sources). I understand some people go vegan or vegetarian for health reasons, some for ethical reasons. I sure as hell am very conscious of what happens in the meat industry and, while I would love to buy the humanely-raised, grass-fed beef from the farmer's market, it's really, really expensive. Prohibitively so, for someone in my situation, with no job, so I buy stuff from the grocery store that likely came from a Midwest feedlot, as much as I hate it. If I could afford it and had the freezer space, I'd buy a side of beef from a local farmer. It just tastes better. In the mean time, I'll source my veggies from them.

Mussels are incredibly cheap right now

I eat meat. I eat seafood. And with the extremely low seafood prices this summer and the high yield harvest, I am going to eat it. And finding that pork is dipping in price lately, I've been buying more of that lately, although pork has never been my favorite. As I struggle to find a job, if I'm given meat, especially with the coming Autumn and hunting season, I'm certainly not going to turn it down. I'm an omnivore, as Nature made me, and I'm going to eat what's available. It's not in my budget to be finicky. And as for growing food, I only have tomatoes, and they've got a fucking case of blight. At least hornworms can be dealt with. Otherwise, vegetables are pretty expensive, especially with the droughts going on across the country.

So, in summation, don't jump my shit because I like meat. I won't jump yours for not eating it.