Show me a young child that loves to eat vegetables and I'll show you a kid that had his Wii taken away one too many times. That familiar parental request of "eat your vegetables" is burned into our brains. And while our parents were trying to encourage us to eat healthy, I fear that it may become a major barrier to America getting on the right track towards sustainability.
Here's where I'm going with this. As highlighted in this recent locavore article in Forbes, and this three tips for a greener you article, moving more people to a vegetarian lifestyle would led to far less usage of land and water to raise cattle.
But if you're in your late 20s, 30s or 40s, do you really want to give up meat? Do you want to give up backyard BBQs or Tailgating? My initial response is "No!" Not because I don't want to do my part, but because I can't fathom a diet of entirely vegetables. If we dig into this a little more, that type of logic doesn't really make sense. There are plenty of ways to make meat-tasting products out of soy beans. And the variety of vegetables (or pasta) is at least as varied as there are choices for meat. So why the harsh initial reaction? I think it goes back to the "stigma" that parents place on vegetables. They aren't considered fun foods. They aren't considered foods that you choose to eat.
So while this is an excellent concept, and one that thousands or millions of people could endorse, it requires a cultural change here in the US. They already have that diet and lifestyle in many parts of the world (including China and India), but not here in the United States.
Lucky for me I'm going to be forced into that diet due to terrible genetics and a cholestoral levels that would make most bowlers jealous (if it were their average score). So now we just need to add this to the list of things to make simple for people to understand.
The list keeps getting longer...
