Do Not Read This Unless

I try to find a thing for you to do or try yourself every blog post, but this one is particularly demanding: 

If you wish to read this, you only have my permission to do so if you are not hungry. In fact, if you are the slightest bit low blood sugar right now, have a snack, and if you are hungry, have something nourishing that satisfies you before you read on. Thank you. 

Ready? I come from Texas cattle country. My ancestors lived in Dallas in the days of the wild West long horn cattle drives and I was raised on Texas beefsteak. I remember when I figured out where meat came from, balking at the idea of eating other creatures, then being assured by the smiling grownups, 'Honey, you can't live without meat!'

So the hungry growing trusting child I was, I just sort of closed my eyes inside, until I could grow up and move out. It was like separating myself from the beings I was eating. I could do this because I was hungry, I needed to grow, and I did not know I had any choice. I learned to just not think about where the food came from. That's how I know we just don't think clearly or have much compassion when we need to eat.

As soon as I turned eighteen I quit meat. All it took was the suggestion from my yoga teacher that it is possible. Now, years later, I can easily make yummy food that satisfies, and often fools meat eaters. Meat eating is obsolete now, because we can easily please, satisfy, and heal people with a primarily plant based food system. 

That is because now we can get a wide variety of plant foods (in developed countries) to replace meat, which is a very nutritionally complete food. People just aren't going veg unless they can get all the fats, sugars, carbs, minerals, and so on that they need, in the proportions they are used to. I have seen this. Otherwise they get unbalanced and snap back into meat. It is an emerging art, living in balance and peace, food wise. But now it is easy, and once you find your personal way, it takes no extra work.

Indeed, a UN report concludes small scale diversified organic farming is the ONLY way to feed all the people on Earth today. This can include forming loving partnerships with farm animals to share eggs and milk. I personally know of three small farms nearby that do this. (below:)

“I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.” ― Paul McCartney

“By eating meat we share the responsibility of climate change, the destruction of our forests, and the poisoning of our air and water. The simple act of becoming a vegetarian will make a difference in the health of our planet.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh, The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology