Lent!

Picture from The Sound of Music with caption "For Lent, I'm Giving Up All My Fucks."

Ok, joking aside, today is Ash Wednesday aka the first day of Lent. For Christians, Lent is a 40-day liturgical season of fasting, prayer, and alms-giving that represents the time Jesus spent in the desert. Lent is supposed to prepare you for Holy Week, which represents the events linked to the Passion of Christ (when Jesus died and was resurrected). It's also the time when new converts are first baptized and others renew their baptismal vows. The whole thing culminates on Easter Sunday, the day Jesus was resurrected.

One Lenten tradition that I like to follow is that of working extra-hard to make positive changes in my life. During Lent people typically give up a vice, volunteer or donate to charity, and focus on connecting with God. I've decided to focus on food and my ecological footprint by becoming vegan for Lent and by eating only seasonal, locally grown foods.

Picture of Jesus. 

Why am I doing this?

I know that what I eat matters. I don't have much disposable income, and food is the biggest thing I spend money on other than rent, transportation, and house bills. Because I get to make a choice with my money every time I buy groceries, it's one of the easiest ways to put my ethics into action and put my money to work for what I believe in. When I buy groceries, I'm choosing which foods I put into my body and which practices I deem acceptable for the production of those foods. Since a big part of Lent is working for the good of people everywhere, and another big part is fasting and reflecting on your privileges and the state of others, it seems fitting to think about my culinary choices and how those choices impact others.

I'm choosing local and seasonal foods because the resources wasted to ship food from far away are ridiculous. We're burning fossil fuels to fly out-of-season foods to us from other places so that we can eat them whenever we want rather than just eating seasonally. I can live without strawberries in winter. Also, there are plenty of local farms around me to buy from so there's no need for me to contribute to the overuse of fuel by purchasing food from other places. Local kale is just as good as kale from another state.

Tomatoes and lettuce in a woven basket with a sign that says "buy local."

In terms of veganism, I'm going to focus only on the environment here. Livestock are costly to raise in terms of resources. Raising enough livestock to feed 10 people for a year will use up more land than growing vegetables to feed those same 10 people. Much of the feed for livestock is grown in monocultures which are not good for the environment. When you grow things in a monoculture instead of a polyculture, you cause the local wildlife and landscape to deteriorate. The soil gets tired because the same nutrients are being used all the time which means you will need to add more and more fertilizers to it, further damaging the earth. Also important - large farming operations often use artificial hormones and overuse antibiotics which contributes to the growth of antibiotic resistant bacteria, something that is dangerous to everyone.

A woman in a garden holding a basket of produce. 

These are the reasons why I'm a vegetarian. And they're the reasons I'm taking it one step further for Lent. But I don't think everyone needs to copy me. What do I think? I think that everyone should eat closer to the bottom of the food chain by reducing their consumption of meat and animal products. Nobody needs meat with every meal of the day. I also think that everyone should buy from small local farmers who use organic techniques and who are conscientious about the humane treatment of their animals. If everyone did this, we'd make a huge positive impact on the environment. Besides, factory farming is disgusting and cruel. Killing animals for food absolutely should not mean making those animals suffer for their entire lives. Not when we have ethical alternatives available to us.

Bless O Lord, this food to our use,
And us to thy loving service;
And make us ever mindful of the needs of others,
For Jesus' sake. Amen.