An unexpected ecotarian journey

I have mentioned a few times on this blog that P. and I have started to think of ourselves more as ecotarians than vegans. I also added that for me that simply added a layer of complexity to my veganism, because I couldn’t see myself abandoning my vegan principles in favour of any ‘ecotarian’ changes.

Well, I have to report that this has changed somewhat.

I’m going to tell you about this the long way, because I think that any other way would fail to demonstrate the truly personal nature of my decision and may come across as judging other people’s consumption choices (vegan or otherwise), or may come across as asking for other people’s approval or permission to make these changes to my consumption habits, and neither of these impressions would be correct. (Of course, there is always the chance that both of these things will happen anyway, and, well, I will just have to deal with that. But please just know that it is not my intention.)

I think that it all started with my interest last year in locavore diets. After reading “The 100 mile diet” and “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” (and “The Ethics of What We Eat” before them), I started to have a seriously increased appreciation of the value of eating locally. Not only does eating locally cut down on emissions from the completely unnecessary transportation of food, but it also connects people to their local environment and their local food producers in a way that is lost when you start to rely on food that is brought in from elsewhere.

The connection to the local environment is huge. Alisa and James (100-mile diet) used the example of an oil spill in a local Vancouver river. The incident itself only attracted a short story on an internal page of their local paper. It was considered to be so minor that they may have missed it altogether. However, they were relying on fish that were caught from that river - fish that had now all been killed by the oil spill – and so suddenly the reality of the impact really hit home for them. Now I currently have no desire to eat flesh. It still completely creeps me out. However, I could really appreciate the message that if everyone – or even a decent minority of people – was eating locally-sourced food, then no local environmental incident would go unnoticed. The contamination of our local rivers and soils would really really matter to us and this would have an enormous impact.

However, this is not the only connection of value that shone through in both the “100 Mile Diet” and “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”. The other connection was a social one. Both families found themselves forming strong personal connections with the local people that produced the food that they consumed. This kind of connection is not only extremely valuable for our society, but it also has an environmental impact. Farmers whose customers visit their farms, and have a personal connection with them, are so much less likely to breach the trust of those customers – their commitment to sustainable farming and to the way in which they treat their land and the animals that live on it is constantly reinforced by the expectations of their customers (customers who are real people and not corporate entities). Furthermore, they can afford to make such a commitment, because they can rely on their local customers, rather than having to deal with the corporate food giants who pay less and are more interested in how their produce looks, transports and stores.

This last point brings me to another important political impact of local eating – it undermines the growing corporate monopoly over food production and distribution. I could go on and on about this – about how it undermines it and why this is so incredibly important to the future of our planet, to the survival of many species of animals, and to the survival of so many human beings whose livelihoods are currently being decimated by the corporate food monopoly, but this is really a post for another time.

OK, so you get the point: I started to realise that eating locally was a really big deal.
Next step was when I started to realise that almost all of my major sources of protein could not be obtained locally. People don’t grow pulses locally. There is a gorgeous couple at our local farmers’ market who make their own tofu from what they describe as ‘local’ soybeans, but those soybeans are grown in Queensland. And they’re not organic. That doesn’t even begin to deal with the amount of processing and (cold!) transport that is involved in our Vitasoy soymilk purchases. All this gave me pause for thought.

Around this same time my next-door neighbour invited Lily and I over the fence to visit their chooks. Our neighbours have a huge, inspiring garden chock full of veggies and fruit, and a big airy chook pen containing three hens – who spend most of their time wandering around the garden stealing vegetables. My lovely neighbour showed Lily where the hens lay their eggs and then offered them to her to take home.

I was stumped. I stood there thinking “Well, exactly why wouldn’t we?” Here is a source of protein that has travelled almost nowhere to get to us and while it does come from animals, I personally have no objection to the way in which these animals are treated. Most of all, the over-all impact of this protein is better for the world and, therefore, better for animals who live in this world, than our current sources of vegan protein…

Around this time a small explosion took place in my little brain and I accepted the eggs.

I put them in the fridge and racked my brains for something to do with them. I could not think of anything. I had been a vegan since the age of 15 and, since then, all of my cooking experience (and almost all of my cookbooks) had been vegan. I knew that eggs were used in omelettes and quiches, but, honestly, the thought of these meals made my stomach turn.

The eggs sat in the fridge for two days while I pondered and finally P decided that he had better cook them up before they went off (we really knew nothing about eggs). He made an omelette with heaps of vegetables and served it up to Lily and himself. Lily sat down and carefully picked out all of the vegetables and left the egg sitting there untouched on her plate.

Despite the anticlimactic nature of the event, something had clicked over in my head and I started to ponder the idea that maybe eating some things that weren’t ‘vegan’ would meet my new ethical criteria more than a strict vegan diet would. I basically started to think about replacing the criteria of ‘veganism’ with one of ‘ecotarianism’ and being open to the idea that one might trump the other.

I was surprised to find that I felt completely overwhelmed by the idea. I guess I realised that a big part of my identity was wrapped up in being ‘a vegan’ and that I was extremely reluctant to completely abandon it even if I was starting to feel as if it didn’t meet my newly forming ethical commitments about consumption. And so I decided to just sit with these ideas for some time and, in the meantime, we started doing more about making our current consumption patterns a little more ‘ecotarian’.

We bought a soy milk maker and ordered a 25-kilo bag of organic soybeans in order to make our own soy milk. I decided that no matter what else I decided, I couldn’t (currently) see that methane-producing, soil-eroding cows could be better than soybeans (even if they were local). So, instead, buying soybeans in bulk and making the milk ourselves meant that we were reducing the impact of the transport and packaging involved in our consumption.

We also bought organic bread flour, almonds, oats, rice and other grains and pulses in bulk from our food co-op in order to reduce the packaging and reduce our reliance on the supermarket system.

Slowly, slowly we started to bring our habits more into line with our principles (an ongoing project that is bound to take a lifetime). However, still the vegan-thing lingered.

In the end I just started to experiment. I bought some local, organic, free-range eggs from our co-op. The farm is not much of a commercial enterprise – it only supplies our co-op and I thought that I probably felt OK with that. I did my best to use the eggs in new recipes obtained online. I struggled with distaste at first, the smell and the flavour really turned my stomach, but, for some reason that I can’t totally explain, I wanted to keep trying. I waited for the psychological impact of the choice to hit me in order to find out what I thought and, slowly, I realised that it felt right. To me.

We decided to add organic, free-range goat’s cheese to our repertoire. Again, it felt right to me.

And that’s where we are at the moment.

No doubt, whether or not you can relate to, or understand, my decision will largely depend on your own personal choices to date and that is completely understandable. That’s the thing. This is an extremely personal thing and that is why it has taken me some time to post about it. The last thing that I wanted was to be used as some kind of false ‘evidence’ for “why veganism is wrong” by some opportunist, defensive person who gives no thought to their own consumption habits but feels justified in attacking the carefully considered choices of others. I also didn’t want to come across as wanting anyone else’s approval or as seeming to attack anyone else’s choices. But, ultimately, I wanted to share with you where I am at, at the moment. So there you are.

VEGANMOFO Day Three - Veg*n Meal Plan Monday

This week I have decided to do a bunch of recipes from a new cookbook in our house - Feeding the Whole Family, by Cynthia Lair [FTWF]. This is the first non-vegan cookbook that I have bought in the 15 years that I have been a vegan and it is not even vegetarian. However, a majority of the recipes are vegan or easily 'veganisable' and I really appreciate her focus on wholefoods and seasonal produce.P and I have been gradually changing our diet over the last few years to better embrace our values of "ecotarianism" and as we have done so we have also been discovering some of the benefits of eating a diet that is much higher in wholefoods. I was becoming frustrated that so many of our cookbooks didn't make this an easy task - by asking for the addition of processed foods or combining produce that doesn't come into season at the same time, etc - and so I decided to purchase this cookbook. I am really glad that I did too. Not only does it have a heap of really great-sounding recipe, but it also has a fantastic introduction section that covers nutritional issues in a way that really speaks to me. If you want to try a few of her recipes, then you can find some here.

More on this later... For now, here is our meal plan for the week:


Monday
Dinner: Brown rice sushi with avocado and tempeh (FTWF p.108 - although this is already a regular dish in our household, I thought that we would try her recipe)
Note: Soak Kidney Beans

Tuesday
Breakfast: Bircher muesli (soaked oats & barley) with grated apple, soy yogurt & LSA
Lunch: Sushi
Dinner: Red bean and Quinoa Chili (FTWF, p.151)

Wednesday
Breakfast: Bircher muesli
Lunch: Tempeh club sandwiches (FTWF, p.112)
Dinner: Thick potato, cauliflower and dulse soup (FTWF, p.130)

Thursday
Breakfast: Bircher muesli
Lunch: Chili
Dinner: Tofu, Kale Supper Pie (FTWF, p.162)

Friday
Breakfast: Bircher muesli
Lunch: Pie or Soup
Dinner: Rosemary Red Soup (FTWF, p.128)

Shopping List

Farmers' Outlet
Avocado
Carrots x 6
Kale
Dill
Green Apples
Beetroot
Bay leaves
Potatoes x 2
Celery x 1/2
Cauliflower
Green Capsicum
Mandarins
Salad greens
Tofu

Supermarket/Co-op
Tempeh x 2
Mirin
Brown rice vinegar
dry dulse
umeboshi vinegar
soy milk
soy yogurt
cashews
Mirin

What is your meal plan for the week?

Times Online

If I'd known that I was going to be quoted in the Times Online I would have put a little more thought into what I wrote...

Ah well, life's like that sometimes.

Vegan Apple & Blackberry Pie

A couple of lovely new friends invited us over to brunch the other weekend and so we decided to make a fruit pie to take along with us.

That morning at the Farmers Markets we picked up a punnet of lovely fresh blackberries and so we thought that it would be fun to bake a blackberry pie. We also had a few apples in the fridge and so we threw them in (along with a pear that we thought would add a nice sweetness to the mix).

The result was delicious. The apricot pie might still be my favourite, but really I'd put them neck and neck. The apples and pear were all warm and cinnamon-y, while the blackberries just exploded in your mouth with their tart sweetness. mmmm




Ingredients:
One punnet of blackberries
3 small apples (peeled, cored and chopped)
1 pear (cored and chopped)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1/4 cup of almond meal (or LSA)

Pastry:
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup cold water

Essentially just make the pastry and roll it flat. Then line a pie dish and dry bake it for about 10 minutes on 200-220 C.

Then mix the apple and pear with the dry ingredients and place them in the baked pastry. Cover with blackberries and then make a lid with the remaining pastry - or chop it up into strips in order to make a thatched lid.

Bake for another 35-40 minutes on 200-220C (or until golden brown on top).

Here's a picture of the inside before we baked it:

Eating your way to a cooler planet

It turns out that facebook might actually be useful for something after all (other than the inevitable "how many 'friends' can you collect" competition).

A (real) friend in the US posted a link to this article in Saturday's New Your Times.

It seems she reads the Times on weekends too, not just to avoid ease my way into work weekday mornings, like me.

While I don't entirely agree with his argument, Mr Bittman raises some valid points, and it's good to see a declared non-vegetarian tackling the issues raised by the intersection of meat production and the environment.


Industrial farming (whether it be for meat or vegetables) is unsustainable. There is no argument to be had here, the facts speak for themselves. Even the (somewhat) less intensive factory farming practices in Australia has dire environmental consequences.

Anyone professing a concern for our planet's future (and that's everyone these days isn't it? It's a cause celeb and people toss phrases like "carbon offsetting" and "global warming" into every day conversations with reckless abandon) should stop and think about what they consume and how it got to be on their plate.

Not a day goes by without me hearing someone make some kind of declaration about the state of the environment. Don't get me wrong, this is a good thing, but if these declarers (and the rest of us) are going to implement the ideals they espouse (practice what they preach, so to speak), the first segment of their lives they should examine is their diet.

It's great to have a short shower (or no shower at all) and switch lights off when you don't need them, but sitting in the dark with slightly stinky armpits while guzzling down a factory farmed steak and three (monocultured) vege isn't making the workd a better place.

If we are going to get serious about global warming there is no time like the present (in fact, if we don't get serious about it soon, in future there may not be a present at all). And the first thing we should all do is a quick impact assessment of our eating habits.

It's not so hard:

In general, the less distance food has travelled from the farm to your plate the better. I say "in general" because you should make an exception for organically produced processed foods which are better than their non-organically produced counterparts - even if they have travelled half way around the world to get to you.

This leads neatly to the next point: eat organic where ever possible (especially processed foods). Organic farming methods enhance - rather than degrade - soils, produce healthier foods, and are far more sustainable.

Eat less processed foods. The shorter the ingredients list on the packet the better. No packaging is even better (farmers markets and co-ops are great places to avoid packaging - just remember to bring a few recycled bags with you)

Minimise your intake of meat. Obviously eliminating it altogether is far better, but one step at a time. Vegetarian (and vegan) foods are amazing if you make a small effort in the preparation. If you would like to try the vegie option (even just one meal a week makes a huge difference) there are plenty of easy and tasty options right here on this blog (or collated at our other blog - the political kitchen).

That turned into more of a rant than intended. Funny what can happen when you randomly log into facebook over breakfast (not something I make a habit of doing).

Vegan Apricot Pie

Now that Summer is upon us, I am trying to focus even more on eating seasonally. And so, starting with the A's, we took advantage of the gorgeous apricots that are now well and truly in season (P picked up a 1kg bag of them for $3 at the farmers markets) and made a scrumptious apricot pie for desert last night.



INGREDIENTS

Pastry
1 & 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup almond meal
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup non-hydrogenated margarine (or non-GM canola oil)
1/2 cup cold water

Filling
500g fresh apricot halves
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup almond meal
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 teaspoons fresh lemon juice


Preheat oven to 210C.

Start with the pastry. Sift the flour, almond meal, brown sugar and salt together. Knead the margarine into the dry ingredients until it is like bread crumbs. Add the cold water slowly and mix together. Hold back on some of the cold water to ensure that the mixture doesn't get too damp. Roll into two balls of equal size. Then flatten them and roll them into flat circles.

Place one pastry circle into a pie pan or an round oven-proof dish. Press in the corners and the edges so that it is evenly distributed across the base and the sides of the dish. Poke a few holes in the base of the pastry with a fork and place in the pre-heated oven for around 10 minutes or until slightly browned.

Now mix together the sugar, flour, almond meal, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl.

Place apricots in a separate large bowl and stir in the lemon juice. Add the dry mixture to the apricots and stir thoroughly so that the apricots are all coated.



Pour the apricot mixture into the partially-baked pastry. Place the unbaked pastry circle on top to form a lid, carefully squeezing down the edges to create a seal. Cut some vents into the top in order to let out the heat during baking.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown.

Leave to cool for at least 5 minutes before cutting or it will collapse on itself and be too hot to eat!

An ethical Christmas (part two)

[continued from part one]

3. Fair trade goodness
Another option for an ethical Christmas gift is to give people something fair trade. Things like coffee, tea and chocolate are a nice option here, because they are semi-luxury foods that lots people like (or may be slightly addicted to). Another benefit is that these are some of the products that are difficult to grow in Australia and generally involve incredible bad labour conditions (essentially slavery) when purchased from large corporations. A lovely spin off may be that some of your gift recipients may choose to make the switch to fair trade on a more permanent basis.

Other fair trade items might include clothing or home wears from shops like Cambodia House or Taylor & Khoo - who produce their products through fair trade practices in Cambodia and then send all of their profits back to Cambodia to run projects like an orphanage and other project work with people with disabilities, urban poor, female land mine victims and rural youth.


4. Eco-friendly gifts
Eco-friendly gifts are also a nice option for an ethical Christmas. This opens a whole range of possibilities and there a plenty of places stocking great gift ideas in this category.One of our favourite sites is Biome where you can buy a range of eco-friendly products, like these adorable wooden animals by Anamalz (available internationally), or environmentally responsible stationary (like the "I used to be a car tyre" mousepad) or the beautiful skin (and baby) care range from Tasmania's Beauty & the Bees.

5. Homemade & Handmade
Another option is to make something yourself. So, for example, if you enjoy baking, you could make gingerbread for people or other tasty treats (using organic & fair trade ingredients, of course).

If you are skilled in the arts & crafts area then you also have a whole range of other options - you could make a patchwork quilt for someone, using recycled & vintage fabrics, or you could make them some jewelry using recycled objects.

If you lack these kinds of skills (as I do, alas), then you might want to check out all the glorious items available on etsy. Everything on etsy is handmade and the money goes straight to the producer. Continuing with our ethical theme you could focus particularly on items that are made with recycled or eco-friendly materials or you could use the geolocator tool to locate sellers that are close to you (or to your intended recipient) so that you items do not have to travel too far and use up unnecessary fossil fuels.
6. Experiences
Finally, you could give someone an experience rather than an object. For kids this might include a gift of dance or gymnastic lessons, or a trail ride. For adults it might be something that they have always wanted to do - like the Bridge Climb (Sydney Harbour Bridge) or hang gliding.

P's sent me hang gliding for my birthday a few years ago and it was the best birthday that I have ever had.

An Ethical Christmas

It is coming around to that time of year when I start stressing about Christmas - what to buy people and what to answer in response to all those people who ask me what I would like them to buy me. This got me thinking about some of the options of making all this present buying a little more ethical (or 'ecotarian' if you will). So here are some of my ideas:

1. Buy a toilet
Odd, yes, but this is an idea that has recently really taken off - you purchase something that is needed for someone in the global south through an NGO like Oxfam or Baptist World Aid and 'give' it to someone for Christmas. This is the perfect way of entering into the spirit of Christmas without adding to the problem of overconsumption in the West.

If that doesn't make a lot of sense, here is Oxfam's description:

Oxfam Unwrapped is a collection of life-changing gifts - giving you the chance to give someone who has everything something special and something special to people who haven't got much at all.

P and I did this last year and it worked really well. It is even possible to tailor this kind of giving to the recipient. So, for example, we bought educational supplies for children in Thailand for my Grandfather and his wife who work in educational policy for UNESCO. We bought a 'start a business' pack for P's father who was a banker and for my father who worked in this area for the World Bank. For my brother I bought 'sex education' because, well because it was funny really. And the toilet? Well that I bought for my Mum because she has always said that she wanted to join the World Toilet Organisation and because, well you would just have to know her to truly understand...

2. Ethical Toys

Obviously young children are not likely to be quite as impressed with a gift that they personally do not receive, but it is still possible to buy gifts for children that are ethical.

There are lots of places that now stock fair trade children's toys and games, and most are made from sustainable wood or textile products that are gentle on the earth and on children.






Some examples include the Oxfam Shop (online and in capital cities around Australia - and other countries), Lark (online and stocked in many retailers around Australia), Generation Wonder (online), and Under the Nile (online and in retailers around Australia).

To be continued...

The Cruelty-Free Living Festival

This afternoon we went along to the Cruelty-Free Living Festival at Petersham Townhall. It was on all day, but we didn't get there until 1:30pm and were happy to see that it was absolutely packed.

The first thing that we did was secure ourselves some food. We decided to share a plate of food from Peace Harmony (a vegan Thai restaurant in the CDB) and a mushroom pie from Go Veg. The food from Peace Harmony was characteristically yummy. We had a plate of rice with soy 'fish', seitan and buk choy and it was tasty and filling - particularly the 'fish' which was yummy and seaweed-y.

The pie was a little disapointing. The contents were fairly yummy, although a little too processed for my preference, but it was cold in the middle because it hadn't been in the oven long enough. They had warned me that this might be the case (after I had bought it) and so I took it back to get heated up, but it was actually still cold when I got it back... so it wasn't the best.

After we had filled our tummies we wandered the stalls to see what was there. Quite a few of the stalls were very specific in their issues (i.e. Chinese Bears, or Animal Testing, etc.) and those ones weren't all that interesting to me, but there were a few good stalls from companies that supply fair trade and vegan products - including some catering companies whose cards I stored away for future possibilities.

After checking out all the stands we decided to get some sweet stuff at Tea and Empathy (a food stall run by the NSW Vegan Society). We got some choc-chip cookies, a little chocolate muffin and a little spice cookie. They were all pretty good, but the spice cookie was particularly delicious and I wish (in hindsight) that I had bought some more for later.

Finally, on our way out we went back passed the Etiko stand and that was where danger struck. We were quite taken with their sweat-shop free footware and within about 5 minutes were suddenly the proud owners of one pair of low-rise sneakers and three pairs of Thongs for Acheh. So much for the budget! The only thing that saved it further was that they were out of size 10 sneakers (for P).

After that we made a hasty exit (having emptied our wallets) and headed home.

It was a nice afternoon and really inspiring to see that so many people were interested in living a cruelty-free lifestyle. Perhaps next time we will take the time to check out some of the cooking workshops or to listen to some of the speakers.

What's an ecotarian?

For a while now P. and I have considered ourselves to be ecotarians rather than just vegans, but we are generally reluctant to use the label because it is meaningless to most people (and probably confusing to anyone else). So, for a while now I have been meaning to do a post to explain what it means to us.

For us being ecotarians means that whenever we make a decision about our consumption (be that of food or any other product) we try to consider a whole myriad of ethical issues that relate to the impact of our choice on the earth. These issues include:

• Whether or not the product has been produced locally or whether it was transported half-way across the world to us.
• Whether or not the product was created using slave labour (or sweatshop labour) or whether it was ethically or fairly traded.
• How much packaging is used and whether the packaging is recycled and recyclable.
• What kind of chemicals were used in the creation of the product or whether it is organic.
• Whether the product is cruelty-free (in that it contains now animal products and was not tested on animals).
• Whether or not we actually need the product or whether we are simply consuming for the sake of it.
• How much energy and water was required to create the product.
• Whether the product is brought to us by a corporation that is highly unethical in its business practices (such as Nestle, Coke or Monsanto).
• And, well, you get the picture...

This may seem like an incredible pain to some people. It may seem like it would involve a life of constantly reading labels and standing, frozen with indecision, in supermarkets aisles. However, it is really not like that. Like any lifestyle decision it is something that becomes a natural part of your day to day routine. Good brands and products become familiar and what you buy becomes second nature.

So, for example, on Saturday mornings we go to the Farmers' Market to buy our fruit and vegetables. We try to focus on buying things that are in season and we prioritise the produce that is available from the organic sellers. Then we get our coffee from a coffee stand that stocks fair trade organic coffee and P. gets the coffee from East Timor, because it is our closest neighbour.

At the supermarket we start off in the organic/health food aisle. There we buy cans of organic beans and tomatoes (and prioritise the ones that were grown locally). We also pick up some Greens & Blacks Maya Gold chocolate when we are feeling a little naughty. It is vegan, organic and fair trade. However, it is also transported quite a long way to get to us and (like the coffee) we don't really need it, but this isn't about being perfect, it is just about trying to make the best choices that we can.

Sometimes there is no perfect choice. So, for example, we can choose between SunRice, which is grown locally, but in an area that really doesn't have enough water to sustainable farm rice, or Basmati rice, which is grown in Pakistan and transported a long way, but grown in an environment that is more suited to rice farming and in an economy that could do with our support. Sometimes, also, the best choice might be an non-vegan choice, but I am not ready to go there yet. I still feel pretty committed to veganism.

Sometimes the best choice is extremely expensive. For each change that we have made it has taken us a while to get our heads around the price difference. The first time we went to the supermarket to buy fair trade cocoa we came back with Cadbury's instead. It was $2 and the fair trade one was $10 and we couldn't bring ourselves to pay five times as much. But then we started thinking about the fact that each time we save money by buying unethical products we are simply externalising the cost to someone else. In the case of the cocoa we were externalising the cost to the slave workers that produce the cocoa that goes into all chocolate and cocoa that is not fair trade. For the non-organic products we were externalising the cost in damage to the earth and to the local environment of people that lived near the industrial farms. Slowly we are starting to be more consistent in living up to our own values.

It is still a challenge sometimes. Sometimes I baulk at the price of eco-friendly products and buy the regular one (like dishwashing detergent), but then P. is there to help push me along (he bought the eco-friendly one last time and now I will never go back). However, other changes have made things cheaper (cleaning with bicarb and vinegar is much cheaper for example) and all of them have made us feel better and made us all healthier - so the advantages make it worthwhile.

Finally, I still think of ecotarianism as a flexible approach. The aim is not to be perfect. The aim is simply to bring a conscious mind to our consumption and to to try live up to our own values. What this means will change with each situation and will our own awareness. I also think that this means that what ecotarianism would mean to anyone else would also be quite varied - which is why, for example, it is not a very useful label to use if you are going to someone's house for dinner, but this also means that it is a 'label' that makes you only responsible to yourself. It is simply irrelevant for someone to point to the inconsistencies in your lifestyle and call you a bad ecotarian the way that some people seem to feel compelled to do with veganism or vegetarianism, because the whole point is that you are simply taking each choice as it comes and making the one that feel right to you in the moment.

Hopefully, however, the end result is that we will leave a smaller footprint on the earth than we would have otherwise and we will set a good example for Lily to follow as she grows up and makes her own consumption decisions.