I'm A Quitter and You Can Be One Too!!!

I have spent more time than usual with nature and animals this week, which has prompted to me take up a challenge that I found with unusually perfect timing. Last night Kevin and I were sitting outside ruminating about the difference of taste in locally grown produce, and how much nicer it is to make dinner with veg we just plucked out of the garden.

In light of those thoughts, and being smacked in the face by the vulnerability of our environment and what it is capable of producing when humans stop being advantageous jerks who can't stop for a second to think about the future (or, in these dire times - the present), I decided that I was going to make a few more tweaks to my life that will have, though be them small, impacts. Veg*n Cooking and Other Random Musings happens to be "holding the torch" for the Quit Now Challenge, which comes from a sustainable and ethical living blog.

Jennifer talks knowledgeably about the obvious end of oil as a resource, and the awareness that we have to cultivate in ourselves NOW rather than in the future. She makes some suggestions for participating in the Quit Now Challenge in her most recent post, including: ditching non-local produce, not eating out, and other oil sucking practices.

I feel that I can commit to a number of these pledges, and without discomfort to my quality of life. I get frustrated by folks who, when they find out I am vegan, say: "God! How do you eat? Where do you find your food? You must be so hungry all the time...." I think this is part of the problem....it doesn't destroy some over imagined westernized vision of quality of life to, say, buy ethical products, eat local food, shop at the market, buy organic. It doesn't tire me out or steal time from my days. It makes my body, my mind and my little vegan soul feel great.

So, here are my pledges:

1. No more bananas (ok...that one is hard, I love my nanners). But, what I really mean, is no more fruit/food/sundries that are flown in from Kalamazoo (shite, that means no more maple syrup from Canada until I get home in October).

2. No more food stuffs that use non-recyclable packaging. I admit to buying rice cakes that come in plastic that looks about as environmentally friendly as the captain of the Exxon Valdez.

These are two little statements, but, I hope they cover quite a bit. Being in Italy for two more weeks is going to help me with the local commitment for SURE.

When I need a little motivation, (come on, who doesn't like nanners drenched in soy milk), I am going to look at this picture of these artichoke in full technicolour bloom.......