modified vegetarian.

san francisco really is getting the best of me. oh shit. i think i just became a modified* vegetarian. i just learned, or started listening to, the following facts:

fact 1: more than half of all the water consumed in the us is used to raise animals for food. a vegetarian diet requires 300 gallons of water per day, while a meat-eating diet requires more than 4,000 gallons.

fact 2: raising animals for food requires more than one-third of all raw materials and fossil fuels in the us.

fact 3: 1.1 billion people on earth do not have safe drinking water. unicef would love to tell you all about it.

there is tension inside me. how can i act and live with compassion in regard to those who are hungry, THIRSTY, lonely, naked, or in prison? i never thought i would do this. and i still wonder, does little old me not eating meat really make a difference in the amount of water/energy used? or the pollution created? do i really believe that i am helping someone else? or making this earth a better place? i'll have to find out.

*i write modified because 1. this isn't about the animals or the treatment of them (i think of myself as compassionate, but here's my honesty: i don't care that much about cows.) 2. this is more about the shit (sometimes literally: a USDA study found that 98 percent of broiler chicken carcasses had detectable levels of e.coli, indicating fecal contamination) that i put in my body and 3. it's about asking myself what i can do to be a better steward of the environment to help with water, energy and pollution. i believe there is a direct correlation with these things to what goes into my body.

wow, this will be a new journey.