Part Two: A Story About Feeding on Life
Written by Lisa on March 16, 2010 – -by Lisa Marie Lindenschmidt
Note: This story is a continuation of my last article, “A Fish Story.”
So, we’re sitting around the fire pit eating raw bison and… What? Oh, right. Sorry. I guess I should back up a little.
Well, the Salmon Incident gave us plenty of fodder for conversation. I could tell Mo was still processing this meat-eating thing. I was, too. When you invest years into supporting and promoting a specific set of truths and beliefs, you hang onto them… sometimes a little too tightly. We analyzed these truths and beliefs through different lenses, splaying them out on the table for dissection. The main issue that kept coming up for both of us was this idea of harm: Are we harming the animals when we’re eating them? Are we harming the environment by participating in animal and animal product consumption? Are we harming ourselves by incorporating these things into our diets? What do we mean by “harm,” anyway? And is this truly a question of harm?
A couple of weeks after The Salmon Incident, we had Frank Giglio and his wife, Camille, over for dinner. I was talking to Frank about what to make for dinner and we got to chatting about the salmon. He said that salmon was a pretty rich fish and that maybe Mo might prefer something a bit lighter like haddock or tilapia. I asked Mo if this was something she’d like to explore. She thought about it and said, “OK. I’ll try it, but I want to help prepare it.” (Admittedly, this is something that has pleasantly surprised me: since beginning this journey with eating meat, she’s wanted to be involved with meat gathering and prep before consuming it. I really respect that about her. She has such a tender heart that I wasn’t sure how that was going to play out, but this approach seems like it helps her to understand and appreciate what she’s participating in.)
The following Sunday found us sitting around the table, eating the local wild-caught haddock pan-seared in local raw butter. As I was getting others seconds, I overheard a bit of conversation between Frank and Mo. He was explaining about how life feeds on life and was detailing what’s involved in raising vegetables and raising animals. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear the whole thing, but what was interesting was watching Mo’s face. She has a lot of respect for Frank – something that she doesn’t parcel out easily. She was listening to what he was saying and I could see that she was putting it together in her head.
After they left, she brought up that conversation a few times and we continued to unpack it, thinking about it from different angles. One thing that kept coming up for us over and over was intentional eating. We’ve spent so much time researching local farms and questioning those farmers about their methods of breeding, raising, and killing practices. We’ve read articles and books about the best ways to prepare and consume the meats. We prepared the meats intentionally as a family and gave thanks at each meal. Were we ever this conscientious with our vegan meals? I mean, yes, we were conscientious, but I don’t think the spirituality was behind it quite as intensely as it has been with meat consumption. And should there really be any difference behind consuming animals?
We decided there really wasn’t. Life feeds on life. That’s where we’ve landed.
I believe we come to this place of intentionality because of our journey with food. Going from vegetarian to vegan to raw vegan was a slow, years-long cleansing physically, mentally, and spiritually. We’ve learned how to live with less, how to provide for ourselves, and how to be with our food.
So, when Daniel Vitalis came over the other night with the beautiful piece of raw local bison, we ritualized it. We took that and the local chicken that I’d marinated in my homemade honey mustard and went down to our fire pit. We spent time learning how to manually start a fire, appreciating our beautiful grove, and got warmed up. As darkness approached, we sampled the bison and chicken raw (both surprisingly delicious) and then tried some lightly cooked over our makeshift spit, eating everything by hand.
And the entire time Mo was present, respectful of the animal, and very clear spiritually. It’s true that nothing can prepare you for parenting – mainly because you never know what gifts your child is bringing with them. Thanks, Mo.
Lisa Marie Lindenschmidt is a raw foods chef and teacher and owner of Rite Food and Company (www.ritefoodandcompany.com), which offers workshops on intentional and joyful eating. Lisa Marie and her homeschooled daughter, Mo, record a weekly podcast – called Sweet Peas Podcast – chronicling their raw foods journey together.
Tags: facial, tomato sauce, vegan fashion
Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments »
By Patrick Lowe on Mar 30, 2010
i can never understand how a vegan can go and eat meat…raw or not
you are obviously deluded
it is not only about health …but compassion
this raw foodist eating meat is disgraceful
South Africa
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By Lisa Marie Lindenschmidt on Mar 30, 2010
Dear Patrick –
To be deluded implies that I am operating under an incorrect understanding. I am not sure how you intended the use of this word, but it seems to be used incorrectly in this situation.
If you read my articles, you will see that my focus first and foremost is always compassion. It would seem, given your response, that you, too, would advocate for compassion. If that was the case, then your comments are not reflecting this ideal.
In peace and respect, Lisa Marie
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By Patrick Lowe on Mar 31, 2010
Hi Lisa Marie
my apologies
you seem to be a dedicated health conscious person – and I see you have respect in the raw food world
yet , I am emotional when it comes to the Vegetarian Thang….a conscious consumer of the Earth’s Energies
we are consumers, yes and Life does Feed Life….but Slaughter of the Innocents is cruel and not conscious
here goes
can you run next to a wild bison, jump on its back, tear open it’s neck with your nails and teeth and then consume the dead beast…if you cannot do this , then you are not a natural meat eater
and to follow veganism as you did is amazing ,and i truly respect that
but to return to the unconscious state of animal slaughter shows that you and many others are doing this for the body beautiful, for ego NOT to change deep patterns of addiction
lets see where this goes
shanti always
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By Lisa Marie Lindenschmidt on Mar 31, 2010
Dear Patrick –
Thank you for taking the time to respond.
Your definition of a “natural” meat eater leaves me wanting. To my understanding, meat has never been procured in this manner by humans. In order to survive, humans understood that animal consumption was necessary. Tools were designed and utilized to hunt, process, and, later, cook animals. This brings me to question what you would call a “natural” vegan. In my research, there are no natural vegans in any human or animal culture.
Accusing me of “returning to the unconscious state of animal slaughter” and saying that I’m doing this for “the body beautiful” gives me reason to believe that you haven’t read my articles. Going on a raw vegan diet for as long as we did helped not only to clear out old eating patterns and addictions, but to bring us to clearer place spiritually. I eat apples – and raw cream and bison – now with more reverence and respect now than I ever did. I gather my food with intent, prepare it with purpose, and consume it consciously. I never did that when I was eating tofu and veggie burgers. And to say that I’m doing it for the body beautiful is a riot. The way I’ve heard this phrase used is in conjunction with people who are obsessed with looks. Patrick, I am a woman with a shaved head, unshorn legs and armpits, 12 tattoos, and what I lovingly call an un-American body unfettered by make-up. I’m just not caught up in that whole “body beautiful” mentality.
As a last point, I would like to touch on your comment about “slaughtering the innocents.” I believe that calling animals innocents is delineating the world into moralities that aren’t logical for me. This isn’t a question of innocence for me; it’s a question of intent. HOW you are in the world is what’s important. What drives me is the quest for compassion and authenticity. In seeking this, if you are called to veganisn, then you should, by all means, pursue this. But be warned: this path may lead you down others. And you have to open-hearted and open-headed enough to allow for new journeys. And – and this is the hard part for me – you have to allow others to explore their paths as well.
What would happen if you took this energy you are exerting on the anger and frustration you are projecting towards me and used it for something creative? What would happen if you turned on your community to some local gardens? Or maybe explored how animals are NOT being treated well in your area and do something about it? When I find myself getting frustrated about something, I always question why I am so invested in it. Sometimes it’s not even about the person I’m arguing about, but rather some of injustice that I’ve been wanting to address.
Yes, shanti always. Take good care.
Lisa Marie
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By JWL on Mar 31, 2010
Patrick, I think you need to look a bit deeper into your arguments. I embraced the vegan ethos for many years, but once I dug deeper into both the ethic and the praxis of it, I found it to be lacking.
How come, for instance, if one looks at ancient cave drawings by humans, one finds images of the hunt and not of gathering berries or agriculture? How come there is NOT ONE predominantly vegan culture in history, particularly among indigenous populations? Humans have been consuming meat as far back as we can see into history. To me, this qualifies as being a “natural meat eater.” Of course, humans as a whole throughout history are most accurately described as omnivores to one degree or another.
Life feeds on life: one cannot escape this truth. While we are in agreement that a “return to the unconscious state of animal slaughter” is not an option for us, one cannot equate factory farming/meat production with sustainable, honorable, local, small-scale meat consumption. And as I’m learning, monocrop agriculture for vegan staples (rice, wheat, soy, etc) is destroying life on an unfathomable scale.
Too many vegans, at least where we live in New England, rely on foods grown thousands of miles away as staples. This does far more damage to life than eating local meat, harvested honorably and sustainably, when that’s appropriate for your locale as it is for ours.
I have always admired the vegan ethos of holding life in high regard, and I continue to do this. My high regard for life, sustainability, and living honorably is precisely why I am not a vegan.
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By Daniel Vitalis on Mar 31, 2010
Hey Patrick!
Just curious if you eat Organic food? If so, what is used to fertilize the soil that your vegan diet is grown in? Also, just curious how it is pollinated? Thanks for taking the time to reply.
~D
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By G.D. on Apr 1, 2010
I appreciate the point that eating meat involves killing animals who did not choose to be eaten. The natural food chain cannot be compared to a person buying all ready killed and packaged body parts in order to eat. It is abusive and not necessary for human health and welfare. Besides the animal slaughter industry is quoted as the main uptake of earth’s resources.
I personally would prefer not to make a graveyard of my body and choose to celebrate it with vitality. Even if I eat my meat with love and joy and gratitude – the scream of the poor bison or salmon…it remains.
lovelightsunshine
G
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By Patrick Lowe on Apr 1, 2010
I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other…. ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854
Truely man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds theirs. We live by the death of others: we are burial places! I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look on the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men. ~Leonardo da Vinci
i dunno guys, your history and mine differ
many cultures preceded the ‘ape man’ culture (the proverbial Evolution Theory )…..ancient, advanced cultures were vegetarian and lived alongside the lower human species who were meat eaters
we are devolving….not evolving
I would rather eat toxic vegetables than slaughtered animals
you all sound like you are desperately looking for excuses for your abdominal behaviour
peace is a group effort
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By Patrick Lowe on Apr 1, 2010
oops…. abominable behaviour
both words actually….
the body does not need meat ….the mind wants ….taste buds want…that all that is in the way
you are simply comfort eating
stop the slaughter
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By Patrick Lowe on Apr 1, 2010
Dear Souls
Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh? For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or mind the first man did so, touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale bodies and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had a little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived. How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds? ~Plutarch
The Mahaparinirvana Sutra sums it up, “The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great compassion”
“In this age of overpopulation, meat eating is an attack on the entire natural world and one of the main causes of environmental degradation and destruction. Livestock use approximately half of the water used in the United States. A flesh-centered diet creates need for about 4,500 gallons per day, per meat-eater, as compared to 300 gallons per day for a vegan (a diet of no flesh or dairy). A flesh-centered diet requires approximately eighteen times more energy to sustain than a vegan diet. The destruction of the rainforest for grazing land and the resultant greenhouse effect is another example of the deleterious effects of a flesh-centered diet on our ecosystem. Neither our land, water, atmosphere, or animal and human populations are safe from the resource intensive destruction that results in the meat-centered diet. We simply cannot escape the fact that raising animals for meat and dairy at this point in history has a devastating effect on our entire ecosystem.”
Gabriel Cousens…..CONSCIOUS EATING……………!!!!!!!
more love
Patrick
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By JWL on Apr 1, 2010
Patrick, I appreciate the emotional assertions you are laying out for us to read. For me, at this point, given where I live, it comes down to one main factor: living on a vegan diet in New England does FAR more damage to life on planet Earth than honorably and attentively participating in the natural cycles of my local food chain.
To paraphrase Lierre Keith: there is death that destroys life, and there is death that is a part of life.
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By Patti on Apr 12, 2010
I was a classmate of Frank’s when we went to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, I enjoyed sharing his journey toward raw and his transformation form what he deemed unhealthy and not concious to the person he has become. That said I applaud you for looking deeper to find what foods suit your continued health and growth, and allow this to evolve over time. I am neither vegan nor raw, but I enjoy incorporating a variety of healthy eating habits as I attempt my own journey to health. Reading your article is both interesting and affirming in many ways for me. I have always beleived that to eat intentionally is to give the body what it needs, when it needs it. I would love to read more, and I will be trawling your blog for more insight into your journey. Thanks
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By Lisa Marie Lindenschmidt on Apr 19, 2010
Thank you, Patti, for your kind words and encouragement! Yes, Frank has a good heart and has taught me and my family a LOT. I am blessed to know him! P.S. Have you checked out his new spice line, Frank’s Finest? CRAZY good spice blends. I’m going to be using them in my new chocolate line! Woo-HOO!
Take good care… Lisa Marie
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