This post is part of my attempt at Bloganuary 2024. Today’s prompt is:
What could you do differently?
Well that sounds like a question lifted right off an Oblique Strategies deck if ever I heard one!
I occasionally aspire to something-closer-to-veganism. Given that my vegetarianism (which is nowadays a compromise position1 of “no meat on weekdays, no beef or lamb at all”) comes primarily from a place of environmental concern: a Western meat-eating diet is vastly less-efficient in terms of energy conversion, water usage, and carbon footprint than a vegetarian or vegan diet.
From an environmental perspective, the biggest impact resulting from my diet is almost certainly: dairy products. I’m not even the hugest fan of cheese, but I seem to eat plenty of it, and it’s one of those things that they just don’t seem to be able to make plant-based alternatives to perfectly, yet.
In an ideal world, with more willpower, I’d be mostly-vegan. I’d eat free range eggs produced by my own chickens, because keeping your own chickens offsets the food miles by enough to make them highly-sustainable. I’d eat honey, because honestly anything we can do to encourage more commercial beekeeping is a good thing as human civilisation depends on pollinators. But I’d drop all dairy from my diet.
I suppose I’m not that far off, yet. Maybe this year I can try switching-in a little more vegan “cheese” into the rotation.
Footnotes
1 I missed many meats. But also, I don’t like to be an inconvenience.
There is so much goodness that comes from raising your own or sourcing from local chickens that have been well-fed and taken care of, compared to most commercial. The egg yolks become rich, deep yellow and the whites stay intact. Unlike neglected, malnourished ones that have pale yolks and watery, runny whites that don’t even get any volume when beating with the mixer for meringue because the chickens lacked nutrition, primarily not enough protein and such in their diets, producing lesser quality eggs.
And with honey, I think your palette changes to become more sensitive to recognizing the different sources and types when locally sourced and not so used to store bought, which is sometimes less distinguished amongst each other. One of the locals near me controls for clover, wildflower, star thistle, all sorts of variants. And they are so good! I can remember my auntie eating honey with a spoon from a jar, thinking oh that’s too much. Which to me is still a bit much, but when you discover honey that good and appreciate the subtly in differing types, that whether eaten in small taste bites with a spoon or on a simple cracker, it becomes a heavenly, singular dessert in itself!
Big sad face at more vegan cheese