Journal #1: My Relationship to Food and Food Justice

I vividly remember sitting at the dinner table with my family when I was younger and staring at the veins in my steak as I begged my parents to let me eat something else. My mom, who grew up in a traditional Italian home in upstate New York, was persistent that I eat my meat, regardless of how disturbed I was about eating an animal, because she knew I needed protein. After eating all of my vegetables, I would cover my steak with mounds of ketchup to disguise the cooked carcass on my plate in attempt to follow through with my mother’s orders. I still struggled. My mom worked hard to prepare well-balanced, healthy meals for us, and everything was always homemade. However, the idea of not eating meat seemed unhealthy to my family. Where would I get my protein at meals? What would I eat other than carbohydrates, vegetables and fruits? Because of my mom's Italian background, things like tofu, seitan, almond milk, quinoa and wheat berries were completely foreign and absent from all of her cookbooks. Until I was in high school, I had to eat meat.

My mom and I maintained a garden in front of our house for as long as I can remember. In our little garden we have grown tomatoes, parsley, basil, zucchini, peas and sometimes corn and sunflowers. I loved gardening with my mom when I was younger and was always very excited when we cooked with the produce and herbs we grew ourselves.

When I was in high school one day, a friend asked if anyone had Advil and I offered her my Advil liqui- gel capsules and she declined stating that there was gelatin inside of them. I thought, “Gelatin? Like… what is in jello?” Long story short, she explained to me what gelatin is and that she was vegetarian. I had finally met someone who also did not like to eat meat and was still healthy. I asked her many questions about being vegetarian and went home that day proclaiming that I felt that I was old enough to make the decision to become vegetarian. That night I researched about the vegetarian lifestyle and learned about the horrifying ways animals are raised and killed along with the terrible effects industrial meat factories have on our environment. I became even more passionate about my decision to be vegetarian. After a week of carbohydrate loading, I felt terrible. But, there was no way I would ever go back to eating meat. So, I started looking for healthy vegetarian recipes and began thinking about what I was eating, why I was eating it and how much of it I was eating. I could not just have the same dinner my family was having, minus the meat, because that would limit me to vegetables and carbs. I had to learn about new sources of protein and how to make them taste good. My meals became balanced and I focused on getting a sufficient amount of protein through legumes, nuts, beans, cottage cheese and began eating whole grain items. After a few months I noticed how great I felt after learning how to be a healthy vegetarian.

When I came to Saint Mary’s it was a challenge to keep up with a healthy, balanced vegetarian diet with the limited options in the dining hall, however, I found ways but always noticed how gross I felt after eating an occasional slice of cheese pizza or grilled cheese. I began reading about veganism and was flirting with the idea for a few months. In my sophomore year I was given the opportunity to have lunch with Michael Pollan, the author of Omnivore’s Dilemma, on campus. This opportunity, along with reading his book, helped changed the way I think about food, how it is grown/ raised, how it gets to us, and how we eat it and how these processes effect our environment, the people involved in this process, the animals involved in this process and ourselves. Michael Pollan shared with the group of us at lunch that day some of the food rules he has for himself, such as, if he can not pronounce the ingredient, then he will not eat it, and it there are more than five ingredients then he will avoid that food item.

When I moved off of campus my junior year and finally had my own kitchen I decided to take my vegetarianism a step further and try being vegan. I was vegan on and off until I went home for Christmas and decided that my new years resolution would be to go vegan. I knew that after being vegetarian for about four years, I was ready for this new challenge. While I was home on break I examined how all of the food I was eating made me feel. I kept lists of what made me feel satisfied yet light and energized and what did the opposite. I re-read my book about veganism (Skinny Bitch) and bought a vegan cookbook from my favorite vegan restaurant (Native Foods). Within the first few months of being vegan, taking to heart what I had heard from Michael Pollan, was when I began to buy mostly organic and locally grown produce and foods as much as possible. I like to know where my food has come from. Not only do I feel great, I also have found that I get sick less often than before I was vegan, and believe that I have lessened my carbon footprint on our earth by my way of conscious consumption. By being vegan, I am forced to look at labels and read ingredients, which I believe is incredibly important. I like knowing exactly what I am putting into my body. My knowledge of different kinds of fruits and vegetables has expanded. I have learned how to cook and eat things that, a year ago, I didn’t know existed. Despite the rumors that vegans loose some of their hair and their nails become brittle, I have now been vegan for a year and still have strong nails and a thick head of hair. When I first became vegan, I started a vegan blog in hope to inspire my friends and family and prove that being vegan is possible and not as pricey as people think. I update my blog with my favorite vegan recipes that I have made as often as possible. (Here it is: vegalicious )

Food has always been available to me. There are many grocery stores in the neighborhood I grew up in such as, an Albertsons/ Lucky’s, Ralphs, Costco, Bristol Farms and Trader Joes. There are also many fast food restaurants, small family owned restaurants and big chain restaurants. Food has been a big part of my life. With an Italian grandmother who could spend her whole day cooking and my mom who also loves to cook, the passion was passed on to me through my time spent with them. Cooking has and continues to be a social aspect of my life, and I am so grateful for the access I have had to good, healthy food.

So far this course has shone a new light on how I can share my passion for, and demand the access to, clean, fair and healthy foods with others who are not given the knowledge and access to the kinds of foods that I have learned to prepare and enjoy. My sense of feeling “starving” is much different than many others around our world. I have never been without food and have had the privilege to know about and consume healthy foods, whereas many people around the world, including people 13 miles away from Moraga, are malnourished. As a future teacher, I have read and heard about how food effects children’s learning and believe that healthy eating habits are so important to teach young children and teens. I have learned that there is more than enough good food for everyone, however, there are injustices in our food systems that are preventing access to good foods for people in certain areas and believe in the movements that are taking place to create change in our current, unjust food system.

“Gardening may seem like just a hobby to many people, but in fact growing food is one of the most radical things you can do: Those who control our food control our lives, and when we take that control back into our own hands, we empower ourselves toward autonomy, self-reliance, and true freedom.” Flores, Food Not Lawns