1. 01 December 2009 · 01:32 PM ·

    Eating Animals.

    Sorry, folks. Today is my last night in DC and I have plans that keep me from tacoing it up. I will be going with friends to see the impossibly crush-worthy Jonathan Safran Foer talk about his recent book, Eating Animals. Unfortunately, it will take all my energy to get his talk without swooning, thus: no recipe.

    This does, however, give us a good opportunity to talk about something. Some of you have noticed that there has never been a beef or pork taco on this blog. Instead, there has been a fair bit of poultry and some fish. Henceforth, there will probably be no meat at all.

    For years I was a vegetarian and it worked out pretty well. Some time ago, I decided to let poultry and seafood back into my life. I did this because I had access to poultry which I trusted from small local producers. As for the fish, that was just because I was in Japan for a time and it was convenient and tasty - no better excuse. Eating “good meat” made (makes) sense to me as a practical act of voting with ones dollars in favor of a sustainable economy for small farmers. There are farmers who raise animals in a really commendable way and, while they account for a teeny fraction of the supply, I am willing to pay the extra cost to support the kind of work they do.

    I still believe in this, but when I read Eating Animals this week, I saw myself, a smug, farmer’s market shopping “selective omnivore,” get called out - and I deserved it.

    Once I became accustomed to eating meat again, I just kept doing it. There was meat creep. I pretended that if I shopped at Whole Foods and bought things with “Organic” and “Free Range” packaging that it made a meaningful difference. I am thankful for the book reminding me to be more of an activist about my food and stop being placated by corporate labels.

    In short: this blog is going to look a lot more veggie-ish from here on out. I understand that some of you will likely stop reading because of this. There are, after all, only so many mushroom tacos I can expect you to make. However, I think we should try this and see how far we can get together. Maybe some of you already are vegetarians or vegans and want to share tips and recipes. Maybe you are balls-out meat-lovers but will not mind eatings the occasional meal without - or maybe you will reblog with your meaty additions.

    I feel really strange writing about food like this, but it seems like as a food writer of a sort you deserve to know this about me.

    Also, just for the record, I am doing this because I know it is the right choice for me right now, and not [exclusively] because of my fantasies in which Jonathan Safran Foer invites me up to his precious Park Slope brownstone for “seaweed” and “tofu”, wink wink. [In this fantasy I guess he’s not married with kids because that would be awkward and I would not want to be a fantasy home-wrecker.] Sounds delicious, though….