I usually don't think much about eating, except when I'm hungry. I might buy groceries to plan for a meal the next day. Beyond that, I also won't shop at Whole Foods down the street, because the CEO is a glibertarian asshole and his products are overpriced and labeled in a misleading way. I try to avoid processed foods because I feel lousy after eating them and I am skeptical about what's in them. I hate the idea of animal cruelty and factory farming, but it doesn't keep me from occasionally eating animals. And that's about as far as thinking about food goes for me. But I know it wouldn't hurt to think harder about what I should eat and why I should eat it. In other words, what are my priorities, and which perspectives would best help me make informed decisions about my food? There are two "food thinkers" who have intrigued me: Mark Bittman of the New York Times, and Lierre Keith, author of the book The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability . In one way, these two are at opposite extremes: Bittman describes himself as a minimalist, who suggests that we de-stress from the subject, and via his columns and recipes, make gentle readjustments into simpler foods and generally less meat, while Keith grapples, in a much more stress-inducing way, with how the planet is dying as a result of grain agriculture, and how vegetarians have it all wrong, despite having truly the best intentions. I feel closely aligned with Bittman's simple approach, and I think I already eat the way he suggests. On the other hand, Keith's book, The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability , gets into some weighty issues, like how the tofu in my stir-fry is connected to the destruction of grasslands all over planet earth. Her language may be grave and intimidating at times, but her claims seem plausible, and to the extent I'm willing to have my diet reflect my values, these are subjects worth considering. She doesn't provide simple prescriptions, but she does a great job of exposing the darker side of vegetarianism, without coming off as doctrinaire, or sounding like a PR flack for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. I think both Bittman and Keith would agree that the choices people make about what humans eat have complex implications for their individual health and the health of the planet, and that being vegan is not a panacea. I particularly liked learning of the concept of kas-limaal:

In his book Long Life, Honey in the Heart: A Story of Initiation and Eloquence From the Shores of a Mayan Lake Martin Pretchel writes of the Mayan people and their concept of kas-limaal, which translates roughly as “mutual indebtedness, mutual insparkedness.” “The knowledge that every animal, plant, person, wind, and season is indebted to the fruit of everything else is an adult knowledge. To get out of debt means you don’t want to be part of life, and you don’t want to grow into an adult,” one of the elders explains to Pretchel. The only way out of the vegetarian myth is through the pursuit of kas-limaal, of adult knowledge. This is a concept we need, especially those of us who are impassioned by injustice.