In the world as it is, I unwaveringly support reproductive choice, but I would be more receptive to the suasions of right-to-lifers if the majority of them were vegetarians who endorse nonviolence and oppose war and capital punishment. They would then be arguing consistently. Every society decides collectively what it will kill and to what degree the sacred will be honored in that death. In our civilized west, we choose to kill just about everything without regard for the sacred and, when it comes to food, we seldom even say grace. We leave it to tribal Indians and radical environmentalists to mourn the animals and the trees.

Vegetarianism is about the only topic that tempts me to a jeremiad. If there were space here to elaborate the evils of a non-vegetarian diet, I would remind us in detail of:

• the weight gain and cancer risks (breast, bowel) associated with the modern high-fat, high-sugar, three-meal-a-day, meat-based diet;
• the adverse impacts on human health of eating high up the food chain (bioaccumulated mercury, dioxins, pesticides, and other toxins; hormones and antibiotics);
• the cruelty, filth, and broader environmental pollution of confined animal feeding operations (beef, pork, lamb) and factory farming (poultry, fish, other seafood);
• the dangerous, soul-sickening, and inhumane conditions under which slaughterhouse workers often work and live (often nonEnglish-speaking indentured labor, confined to camps);
• the vastly wasteful use of world resources to sustain world beef production;
• the ethical/spiritual dimension of food choices in a time of overwhelming plenty.

It is truly perplexing to me that most Houston-area environmentalists are not vegetarians. Meeting yet another environmentalist who still eats meat suggests the same sort of mental/emotional disconnect as meeting a physician who still smokes. When I ask, how is it you’re not a vegetarian? I hear:

• But I like meat; I don’t like all that funny food.
• I’d go vegetarian in a minute if my husband would – but he won’t, not in a million years.
• I’m pregnant – I need all the protein I can get.
• I used to be vegetarian, in college, but then I got sick/lost too much weight/felt weak and my doctor told me to go back to eating red meat.
• I travel too much; we do a lot of business over meals.
• Sooner or later, everything has to die.
• Aren’t vegetables sentient, too?

The easy way to effect a permanent transition from flesh-eating to a saner diet is to wean yourself. Make a start, drop one meat item you regularly eat (bacon, hamburgers, fish sticks) and hold the line – a day, a week, a month at a time.

If you favor abrupt withdrawal, you can buy a month’s supply of Pemmican bars at Whole Foods (440 calories, complete protein) and a good vegetarian multivitamin/ mineral supplement, and then you can eat as much or as little as you please from the vegetarian side of the menu without worrying about whether you’re getting enough of what your body needs.

For people who hate funny food, Cleburne’s cafeteria (Bissonnet at Edloe) is a relatively inexpensive place to find all-American mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, rice and white gravy, many vegetable and bean choices, Greek salad, pickled beets … but watch out for ham, bacon, beef/chicken/fish stock in the cook pot. And gelatin salads are definitely off limits.

There are good reasons to go vegan and to eat only organically grown foods, but a column about that will have to wait. I haven’t yet managed to give up cheese for more than two or three weeks at a time.

Two good books if you’re thinking about going vegetarian but not yet quite convinced: Frances Moore Lappe, Diet for a Small Planet, revised edition (Ballantine Books, 1982) and John Robbins, Diet for a New America: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness, and the Future of Life on Earth, revised edition (H. J. Kramer, 1987). Diet for a New America is also available as a documentary (call EarthSave, 1-800-362-3648). And if you have not yet seen Mondo Carne, it is well worth renting, but be advised not to watch it with your children — the film is very grim.

Finally, with genetically altered crops entering the picture, everyone – vegetarian or not – ought to be concerned about maintaining a wholesome food supply. The CEC will sponsor a roundtable on bioengineering later this year. Please watch for the announcement and make plans to attend.

Jane W. Elioseff is a freelance writer/editor and the projects coordinator of the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention. She is a trustee of the CEC and serves on the state executive committee of the Green Party of Texas.