I’ve been a vegetarian, more or less, since 1987. I still eat some egg and milk products (in cookies and cake) and I eat clams sometimes. I read somewhere that true vegetarians give clams “the benefit of the doubt” as to whether or not they have any feelings and consciousness. I guess that I give my own appetite the benefit when I’m in doubt. Nonetheless, my daily diet is still pretty far from the standard American diet. And that works for me. I eat what I like and I like what I eat.

It occurred to me that vegetarianism, whether perfect or somewhat compromised like my own version of it, is made possible by the modern industrialized world (I’m gonna give it credit for once). Because of our extensive trade, transportation and distribution networks, most of us Americans can buy a wide variety of foods cheaply and conveniently. We have access to fresh fruits and vegetables and grains all year long. We have available a wide variety of food items that substitute for meat protein, like nuts and soy products and pasta. Even without meat or animal products, we can still eat a wide variety of foods available in the typical supermarket. And if we do have a problem with a vitamin or nutrient (I have the typical vegetarian deficiencies in calcium and B vitamins), we can buy supplements pretty cheaply.

So, for better or worse, vegetarianism is made practical and possible by modern society. Just go back 200 years or so and you absolutely had to eat meat to get by in a lot of places on this planet. There just wasn’t any other way of getting calories and nutrients down your gullet for many months. In warm places, especially near a lake or an ocean, you could get a fairly wide range of grains and veggies and nuts; but in the colder places (like Poland, where my ancestors came from) or up in the mountains or deserts, there just wasn’t a whole lot of stuff that you could grow and store. Maybe you had some potatoes or cabbage, but not much else. So you had to take advantage of all the proteins and fats and minerals that your near-by animal friends had stored up in their flesh, for your own survival.

It sometimes amazes me how humans have occupied pretty much every corner of this planet, no matter how cold or dry or nasty the environment. But then again, they couldn’t have done it without having animals to eat. Before the advent of supermarkets, you could only be a veg-head in places like Italy or Africa, where plenty of beans and vegetables and fruit were always available. In Norway or the high Andes Mountains of South America, you had to rip into flesh in order to get enough energy to stay alive. Which makes me wonder, as an imperfect vegetarian, why even settle in such crappy places? I guess that the inner drive to control your own plot of soil is strong, even stronger than the urge to have something more than meat and potatoes on the table every night.

Here in modern America, land and houses are terribly expensive; which proves that the primal urge to control one’s own domain is still strong. But at least food is plentiful and relatively cheap, allowing those of us who can overcome the other primal urge (i.e., to rip into flesh when the stomach starts growling) to follow our enlightened wills. I’m glad to be one of the enlightened . . . .

Uh oh . . . . .