"We're not telling you what to eat. We're telling you what you're eating."

I can't think of a better way to begin this blog than with a post about this brilliant article by Ari Soloman. There is only one sentence in it that I wouldn't have said myself if I had thought of it. That sentence is "Veganism is a philosophy." It might be. I don't know or care if it is. As described a few sentences later, here's what veganism is for me: "In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals." There you go. Simple. No need to strain the brain, just don't eat the animals.

I appreciate this article for paragraphs like this one:

There is a video making rounds on YouTube that shows a lone cow shaking in terror as she contemplates walking down the kill chute. She walks forward, then back. Animals can hear and smell the violence and death that awaits them. Their last moments are ones of abject horror and suffering. If you wouldn't condemn your dog or cat to such a fate, how can you pay for others do it to these poor animals?

There were several pages of comments to this article, but no one answered that question.

But I think the main point of the article comes next:

So. When a vegan is talking to a meat-eater about these issues, he or she is not "preaching", "trying to convert", or any such thing. We're not telling you what to eat. We're telling you what you're eating.

Since animals can't speak a language humans can understand (though I think the screams and terrified moans that fill slaughterhouses should be pretty much universal -- all living beings want to live) it's up to us to tell their stories and inform people of the suffering that goes on conveniently out of the public eye.

If, as a meat-eater, being exposed to this reality bothers you, it is not the fault of the vegan.

There it is. And I can't really add to it. It's perfect.

Hang around, because here at Campfire 30, Saturday is shopping day. That's day after tomorrow. We shop at the Clark Park Farmer's Market in West Philadelphia. It is held Saturdays 10am-3pm and Thursdays 3-7pm. We always shop for the week on Saturday and sometimes supplement with a few items picked up on Thursday. (The hours might change for winter, but the market is open year-round.) Each week, I'm going to post our shopping list complete with prices and often pictures. I will also be providing some recipes - I make them up, some are good, some are not-so-much good. Most will be illustrated.

I've only been eating a vegan diet since May of 2008. Back when I was eating animals, I couldn't imagine what vegans ate. I remember offering a girl a marshmellow at a bonfire at the WV Writer's Conference at Cedar Lakes a decade ago, and she said, "Ooooh, not on my stick." I asked her why and she explained something about gelatin and how she didn't eat anything derived from animals. Marshmellows were out? Somehow, at nineteen or twenty, that put the idea into my head that not eating animals is complicated. Now, understand: It wasn't that young writer's fault that I didn't go vegan sooner. Not at all. I couldn't wrap my head around the concept of not eating these marshmellows? I couldn't think of what people ate if they didn't eat marshmellows? (By the way, there are vegan marshmellows.) Who knows what I was thinking. I was nineteen or twenty years old. The point is, there is food besides marshmellows. Honest. And, so....

While I love the quote I used for the title of this post, it isn't really what this blog will be about. I'm not telling you what to eat. I will try to help meat-eaters see what they're eating. But mostly, I'm going to tell you what I eat.

Maybe that will help.

Cheers.