Monday, January 28, 2008
Veganism is a win-win for the environment and people's health
I have not been good about keeping up with entries in this blog. I have committed myself to graduate school, and I have a full-time job. Thus, my spare mental energy and time are not there enough for me to keep up with the blog as often as I'd like. I'd like to say I'm resolved to be better about it, but I don't want to make any promises I may or may not keep. Having the blog has been wonderful. It has let me get issues off my chest and provide some education about vegetarian issues to others who live in the Rio Grande Valley. It is one more useful tool to help vegetarians connect with one another. I hope I've conveyed that eating a vegan diet is not difficult, and anyone can do it. Meat is expensive to buy, and it also exerts a tremendous toll physically and environmentally. Long since it printed a column on its opinion pages with blatantly false information about veganism, The New York Times finally printed something honest on Sunday about the cost of meat production called "Re-thinking the Meat-Guzzler" by Mark Bittman. Among his very interesting comments is this nugget: "If price spikes don’t change eating habits, perhaps the combination of deforestation, pollution, climate change, starvation, heart disease and animal cruelty will gradually encourage the simple daily act of eating more plants and fewer animals." The reality is that the planet cannot sustain the current levels of meat eating. It is destroying the environment both in terms of greenhouse gases and pollution to our waterways. It is destroying people's health, and it is making humans desensitized to enormous amounts of pain and suffering by the animals we slaughter.
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Wow, a vegan in the RGV? I have just moved here as well and am trying to find health food stores like Whole Foods or with imports like Trader Joe's. Any luck with this? Seems like the only option is to drive to San Antonio or Houston and stock up.
ReplyDeleteI really miss Whole Foods and Central Market, both of which are in San Antonio and Austin. We do have a decent health food store in McAllen on 10th Street called Sun Harvest, and just up the road from Sun Harvest is a wonderful HEB at the intersection with Trenton. I go to McAllen once or twice a month to stock up on things I need. We are members of a great CSA, which provides us with locally grown organic vegetables. There's a link to the CSA's Web site on the right, but they don't update it very often. In Brownsville, there's Loop Farms in Southmost. They grow all sorts of things, like cabbage, onions, oranges, peppers, etc. Unfortunately, they are not organic, so I don't buy their greens. Their oranges are just amazing. To get there, you drive down Southmost Boulevard past everything and eventually you'll come across the farm on the left, which has a feed store attached to it. Oh, and I forgot, a great health food store that's much closer for you. It is on the island and called Naturally's. Their Web site is www.naturallys.net. They are really good for a small health food store. They have a small diner attached to it, as well. That's only about 30 minutes from where you are, but Sun Harvest and the HEB in McAllen are worth the trips for other items you may not find on South Padre Island. My wife and I use the Internet for some things, too, such as unfiltered Greek olive oil. Mmmm. Anyway, if you scroll to the bottom of the blog, you'll see some hints on places you can find. I hope that was helpful. Take care.
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