No Impact Family

I am not sure why, but I just saw No Impact Man, the movie about the guy in NYC who went a year without making any environmental impact. This means he -- and his daughter and wife -- only ate locally sourced foods, did not use any fossil-fueled mode of transportation (subway, car, certainly not an airplane), went without electricity, and the perhaps the most reported on less-impact: did not use toilet paper.

My first takeaway was that I could not believe I had not seen the film yet--- or read his blog or book, or watched any of his dozens of interviews on Youtube. For those of you who have not yet seen it, please consider this a ringing endorsement, and watch it on Netflix.

My second takeaway was, "Wow... I am actually doing some of this stuff. Rock on!"

While I don't do nearly enough as No Impact Man, I already do some, and am now inspired to do more. So, what do I do already that No Impact Man does?

• Use Jars, not glasses. We drink out of jars instead of glasses
  
  
• Buy local food. We try to buy locally sourced foods (a big part of this blog) and consider the farmers market the highlight of my week
  
  
• Grow your own food. We are starting to garden and last summer harvested herbs
  
  
• Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. We try not to buy anything new--- in fact, we can usually outfit our home by finding stuff in free-boxes on the street
  
  
• Carbon-friendly travel. We ride bikes around town or use DC's exceptional metros or buses. Seldom do we take taxis or drive a car.
  
  
• Don't eat meat. Alex and I are both vegetarians. Meat is one of the greatest contributors to global warming, but I mainly oppose it for ethical reasons.

And what do I want to do?

• Make our own cleaning supplies. Eco-friendly cleaners exist, and I use them (Mrs. Meyers, Method)... but what about the packaging, and shipping? No Impact Man makes his own household cleaning agents and stores them in his used cleaning bottles. As soon as mine run out, I will do the same!
  
  
• Start to compost. I know I live in a city (and I know I live in a city with rats), but I want to at least explore the option of composting. No Impact Man composted in his apartment, and while he was okay living with flies, his wife was not. There has got to be a way for me to compost outside... Stay tuned!
  
  
• Unsubscribing from catalogs. I try to do this, but not very hard. I call the consumer magazines, but not the non-profits I donate to. I need to of course continue to donate, but request that I be taken off their mailing lists.
  

There are more, of course, but I think this is a good start! I think the best takeaway from No Impact Man was that if he and his family can do everything to lessen their impact, can 't we all just do something?

Hello from Maine Part I - Flatbread Pizza

Yesterday, Alex, the pup and I arrived in Maine to visit my brother (Brian), sister-in-law (Katie) and baby neice (Zevon) for a week. The day before we all piled into Roger's car, my brother called me and said, "So, Katie and I want to try to eat vegetarian while you are here."

First, I was so excited, but also felt guilty. While I know I can be opinionated and pushy with my views on meat and animal treatment, I never want to push those I love into something they are not comfortable with. My brother assured me that this was something he wanted to do, and hell... it was only for a few days.

Upon our arrival, Katie said we were going to dinner at pizza joint that had vegan pizza and got all of their incredients locally. The name rang a bell: Flatbread Pizza. My friend has been reminding me to go American Flatbread in Virginia for a while now. They serve local ingredients and get their cheeses and meats from local, sustainable farms. And I have been searching for the perfect below-90-degree day to hop on our bikes and ride out to Virginia for a delicious pizza lunch.

When we got to Flatbread Pizza in Portland, ME we had 20 minutes to kill, so I wandered around looking for someone who could answer some questions about the animal products.

I quickly found one of the partners. It turns out that the meat and most of the cheeses come from small, local farms around Portland. However, the mozzarella is not. The mozz (as is in most restaurants that buy local) is bought from a distributor, because so much is used and it is not economically viable to buy it from a local farmer.

This needs to change. There are farmers who make mozz, but until there is constant demand for them to expand and sell wholesale, the "local" restaurants are still going to get their mozz from factory farms. So, I enjoyed my vegan pizza (yummy veggies, without cheese), while the rest of the crew enjoyed veggie pizzas with cheese.

I am curious if American Flatbread (not the same chain, but clearly related), also makes a local exception for mozzarella. If they do, they should think about changing. It is one of the most popular cheeses and restaurants can use their dollars to help change the inhumane way it is produced and sold.

I think Alex and I will be making our bike ride to Virginia sooner than later.

DC = Most Veg-Friendly City!

I guess we all can guess why DC is the land where meat-eaters come to die, and reincarnate as vegetarians:

DC was just rated (by the ever-so-rigorous PETA) as the most veg-friendly city!

And it is not hard to see why! Check out my previous post, Good Veggie Eats in DC, to see all of the delicious vegetarian restaurants we got goin' on here.

DCist, a DC-based blog, reported on PETA's ratings and mentions some favorites, such as Amsterdam Falafel, Java Green and Sticky Fingers Bakery.

While I am already now craving falafel tonight, I really want to try the vegetarian biscuits and gravy at Sticky Fingers Bakery! That is definitely something I have missed as a vegetarian.

It is rather comforting to know that a town that is run by Big tobacco, beef, oil, and other not-so-veggie-friendly-cats, we -- the people -- either are or support vegetarians.

Deciding to Eat Humane

My eating habits have been as varied and fickle as my life choices... From childhood to adulthood (if that is what you can call the time when someone is 29 and sang 8 songs at karaoke last night), I went from being an omnivore to a pescetarian to a vegetarian to a humane-omnivore to a vegetarian. And now, as more undercover videos are released that detail the rampant abuse at dairy farms (thanks to the courageous work of leaders at The Humane Society, PETA, and especially Mercy for Animals), I have found it harder and harder to eat factory-farmed dairy.

Except that I love dairy products. I am a foodie at heart, and my friends (some who have meat daily) often marvel at the fact that a vegetarian can cook really good food.

So, how do I make my mom's neighborhood-favorite spanakopita or my brother's gourmet eggplant parm? Easy: I go the farmer's market and get mozz, parmesan and eggs from farmers who don't allow their animals to live a tortured existence, as Jonathan Safran Foer eloquently detailed in his book Eating Animals.

But how do you know if the farmers are actually humane? The USDA criteria for "humane" does not meet the standards of how we would classify "humane." And by humane, I mean if we saw a video of how the animals spend their day, we would not turn our eyes away in shame and agony. (That is an entire blog post for an entirely different time, but it is something that I consider every time I eat or buy an animal product.)

This blog is going to chronicle my journey from being a vegetarian to being a humane vegetarian. While I have already found some amazing farmers (like Keswick Creamery) and delicious restaurants (like Java Green) in DC, I want to find many more. This blog will include farmers who are humane, restaurants that have humane dairy and eggs (and those that don't), and how one goes about eating humane without wasting food or being rude to beloved hosts who don't buy humane dairy and eggs.

Many thanks to my friends who asked me to share the ongoing humane vendors and restaurants I have found, and to the animals rights groups who have inspired this exciting choice. And thanks in advance to those who won't judge me when I fail on both accounts and grab a jumbo-slice on a late Saturday night/Sunday morning.