Eat less meat, save the world (sort of)

The New York Times came out with this article recently, entitled, Rethinking the Meat Guzzler. Today, a few co-workers came up to me at work and told me about this article, amazed at the argument the article was making: essentially, eating less or no meat will be good for the environment. This is by no means a new observation to most of us who are veg*ns. What is fascinating to me are these things:

• A traditional, main stream media outlet advocating the almost anti-American sentiment of less or no meat consumption.

• The deft way in which the argument is approached not from the animal rights perspective, but from the environmental perspective. The animal rights perspective is touched on as an added benefit of eating little to no meat, but the entire issue is framed up in environmental terms.

• The use of data to bring home the point--the desired action is being argued for in terms of rational rather than emotional terms, seen here:

"To put the energy-using demand of meat production into easy-to-understand terms, Gidon Eshel, a geophysicist at the Bard Center, and Pamela A. Martin, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan — a Camry, say — to the ultra-efficient Prius. Similarly, a study last year by the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Japan estimated that 2.2 pounds of beef is responsible for the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average European car every 155 miles, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days."

Imagine, just 20% less meat would do so much to reduce energy consumption! Perhaps, put in these terms, those who cannot change their dietary behaviors for lack of identification with animal suffering, will do so because it has such a real and rapid impact on our environment and current energy crisis. It's not a call for veganism, or vegetarianism; but for now, it seems to be the most palatable call to action for mainstream America.

Note: Picture above was taken by foxypar4 retrieved from Flikr Creative Commons

Shoes.

I was trying to kill time this evening waiting for my order of broccoli and penne with garlic and oil from the little Italian place near my apartment when I walked into the new shoe store next door.

While browsing, I noticed that they were selling a pair of Simple Shoes, pictured left.
These are the Tomatoe, very cute actually. These particular shoes are not exactly vegan--they have a wee bit of wool on them somewhere. I chose to buy them anyways because in general, Green Toe is very environmentally responsible, and they do also make 100% vegan shoes. Truth is, if I had seen that there was wool on them at the shoe store, I probably wouldn't have bought them; but, I'm not sweating it now--there's more good in supporting a company like this than boycotting it because they used a bit of wool somewhere on the shoe.

The person selling me the shoes was surprised that I knew the brand--we got into a conversation about being vegan and buying shoes. Is it hard? Well, yes, and no.

In 2008, it's getting easier to find stylish shoes that are non-leather. Back in the day, it was a bit harder, and some of the shoes were just damn ugly.

But, here are some tips and tricks I've learned over the years about vegan shoe hunting:

• A convenient place to find non-leather shoes that won't cost you a ton of $ is Payless. Target also has some interesting shoes from time to time.
• Generally, companies that market themselves as vegan, or who sell vegan shoe lines, tend be better quality than what you would find in the discount stores, and also more expensive. Mooshoes is a good vegan shoe retailer that can introduce you to some of the best vegan brands out there.
• Summer is great time to find vegan shoes, because many sandals and flip flops are made from synthetic (or natural fabric) materials. Fall is a great time for boots, especially the ones that go over the calf. Synthetic materials are stretchier, and so can go over those tricky calves better than the leather counterparts.
• In general, when trying on shoes, make sure you pay attention to what the sole is made of: often times, especially in women's shoes, the upper will be synthetic/fabric/fiber, but the sole will be leather.
  

If you have any other tips, brands, or places to find veg*n shoes, please let me know.