City Farm Visit

Hey everyone!

This past Saturday, a few of us from Practical Ethics met up at City Farm to check out the local food market and talk sustainable eating habits.

We started in the organic farmers’ market and wandered around checking out vendors selling things from organic produce to organic, natural beauty products. Everyone was happy to talk with us as we passed their booth and seemed very friendly and knowledgeable.

The five of us (Sky, Claire, Jacquelyn, Michelle, and me) then went over to the City Farm Café for breakfast. The food was all gorgeous, with vegetarian items galore and most of the food local and organic including the meat options. The owner stopped by a couple of time to check on the food, talk vegan chefs, and discuss the origin of everything we had in front of us. Sidenote: the lovely owner also leaned a bit too close to the heater and almost set her coat on fire.

While we ate, we talked about sustainable food choices. I myself have been both vegetation and vegan, and reverted straight back to Mostly Carnivore as soon as my hippy community was gone as a results of my move from Austin to Houston (Texas). Sky was happy to represent the vegan perspective, and it turns out four of the five of us are strict vegetarians. We discussed the etiquette of refusing or accepting food (“Thank you but no Greek grandmother, I don’t want vegetables cooked in meat drippings…”), how to manage slip-ups (we abandoned that whole idea of slipping up. Each new meal is a new decision), and our own reasons behind making our food choices (ecological impacts? animal rights? cultural surroundings? ). Eating is a complicated decision-making process, taking into consideration everything from production costs through additives and their health implications. It was nice to chat with a positive group of people all thinking about the topic but still living practical, food-rich lives.

Our next meet-up will be next weekend, when we give Freeganism a try. We’ve all heard about it, read about it, thought about it, but most of us haven’t made the quite gutsy move to a Freegun collection run and subsequent cookup. Well we’re going to give it a try this Sunday, 17 July! If you have questions or want to join us, feel free to contact myself, Sky, or Claire for more details. We also have a Practical Ethics facebook group if you want to check us out there!

Cheers! and happy pictures of chickens!

Nancy