A statistically improbable polymath's views on politics and culture.

 
Currently it's Vegan Week here at Chicago, meaning that the Vegan Society is even more aggressive in its campaign for an animal-free lifestyle. They make it really tempting--they give you free food from Cedars of Lebanon, the Chicago Diner, and other cool places, plus free product samples. All you have to do is pledge to be vegan for a week.

So today (after brunch--cheese ravioli, ham and cheese omelette, salad with bleu cheese, cow's milk), because I felt guilty about taking free samples of non-dairy "Parmesan" topping and Dr. Brommer's soap while still eating meat--I pledged to be vegan for the rest of Vegan Week (until Thursday). Now, I'm probably not the person best adapted for going vegan. I'm slightly hypoglycemic, and I try to eat low-glycemic carbohydrates. At the dining hall, this usually translates into eating a rather good quantity of meat. I appreciate the vegetarian rational for not eating meat--given the right resources (read: really good cheese), I could see myself easily adapting to an ovo-lacto lifestyle with the occasional humanely-farmed steak--but I really don't see the moral injunction against drinking milk from well-treated cows on a family farm somewhere in Vermont.

However, I do have a stockpile of soy milk (it was on sale at the Co-op), beans, brown rice, frozen spinach, olive oil, whole-grain or low-carb pasta, and various spices. If I buy a packet of tofu and some canola oil today, I might be able to do this.
posted by Maureen at 2:19 PM