A friend posted some comments, which raise good points, and I want to respond. I hope that she doesn't mind I've copied her comments here.
ADKJen commented:
The hundred mile diet (not diet, as in to lose weight, but as in what you eat) in Maine will not include citrus then either? I think it would be difficult to raise a healthy boy to his potential without the proper protein of meat. Ethical treatment of animals is important to me also! Why should an animal suffer through its short life to feed me and my family? Also, farmed fish (not in the ocean, but in pools on land) is something of a recent obsession of mine as far as educating myself and it's impact on the environment and other fish in the sea. Ocean farmed fish is really terrible in that respect, but I don't want to get myself started here!
My response:
If I decided to strictly adhere to the 100 mile diet, it would not include citrus. But, I will probably always allow citrus as one of my many exceptions (along with chocolate and coffee). If I got down to it, I could find a way to get Florida oranges that traveled with my family who was traveling that way anyway. However, there are other good ways of getting vitamin C. Leafy greens and green peppers can both by grown in cooler climates, and the greens can be grown indoors all year round. If that's what I choose to do. But, I'll probably just keeping eating citrus in the winter.
I definitely do not intend to go "veggie." Much more likely is that I would buy local, organically raised meat. Although I tried being a vegetarian at one point, I'm a firm believer that humans are meant to be omnivores. However, the abuse of animals in factory farms does bother me. And selfishly, I'm concerned with the effects on my health that the way these animals are fed and treated have. For example, chickens that are fed a diet of grass and bug lay eggs that are higher in omega-3's than chickens that are grain fed.
As for fish, I really don't know much. I boil it down to this... Why do I want to pay the price (environmentally) for the fuel needed to transport and refrigerate haddock that comes from Norway, when I can pay the same cash for better tasting haddock that comes from Portland, while supporting the local economy?
You are so lucky to have local fish! But my Connor is allergic to poultry and fish, unfortunately... I have read so much about and think it's just better to forgo the farm raised (in nets, in the ocean) fish - especially salmon! Oh, the disease and bugs! And the havoc it wreaks on non-farm raised fish trying to get thru the nets back to their spawning grounds. Nuff said, eat your home grown local yummy fish and remember that I can't! :)
ReplyDeleteMy personal observations about the eggs we get from a friend who has almost-free-range-type chickens (for eggs, not food - that's a different kind of chicken, I was told). Well, the eggs are AWESOME! I almost can't eat the regular ole grocery store eggs anymore - or don't want to eat them anymore, anyway! The bug eating chickens produce eggs that are fresh in taste, whose whites are not nearly as runny, whose yolks are large, dark orange, thicker, and, most importantly, way way more delicious! I would love to have a chicken or two around the back yard now. Alas, not - darn homeowner's association!
Not sure how much you have looked into Eastern medicine, internalizing stress can be bad bad bad for you. Is is better to be educated and sad or is ignorance bliss? I say much of the American population would choose the latter...