Karen's Story

Reading Frances Moore Lappe’s Diet for a Small Planet in the mid 1970’s led me to become vegetarian. I learned that cows don’t have to be fed corn to produce protein rich meat (in fact corn makes them ill since they are ruminants). That fact was crucial to me, along with understanding that greater nutritive value may be provided for more humans if the grain is eaten directly. That was it for me and meat! I was happily a lacto-ovo-vegetarian (one who eats dairy and eggs, but not meat) for all the decades between my 20’s and my 60’s. I would temporarily become pescatarian (one who adds fish/seafood to a vegetarian diet) on infrequent occasions when I was at the seashore or had the option of some locally produced fish.

Recently, I was invited to dinner with the poet C.A. Conrad who pointed out that anyone who eats cheese can’t call themselves a vegetarian. I had conveniently forgotten that most cheese is made with rennet from a calf’s stomach. I began seeking cheeses made with plant-based rennet. When, in the fall of 2019, my husband showed me Jonathan Safron Foer’s film, Eating Animals I realized I simply couldn’t stomach eating products in which animals had undergone pain, perhaps had led tortured lives, to bring those products to my table. I had seen Food Inc, King Corn and other films about how most of our food is produced but none of them had had the pathos to rouse me to change.

Now, we are eating a diet that is primarily plant-based. My omnivorous husband has been with me in Kansas City (he usually lives in Connecticut) since just before we began to shelter in place due to the coronavirus. He’s lost 20+ pounds and we have been enjoying incredibly delicious recipes from the NY Times or other sources at dinner each evening. We look up a lot of vegan recipes on the internet when we want to change from, say ricotta to cashew “ricotta”. For breakfast he does still have a croissant (not plant-based since they’re so buttery) while I have fruit, grains and “soysage”. At lunch he has yogurt while I make a coconut milk based “co-yog” to have with fruit and nuts, along with some sort of bean salad that I always keep on hand and perhaps crackers or crudités with a cashew-based spread. Add to this a glass of iced mint/lemongrass tea from my garden and we have a delicious lunch as well. In summer we eat vegetables and herbs from my garden and frequent the farmers market each Saturday morning.

My maternal grandparents were farmers in northeastern Missouri. As a child, I was always so interested in all the practices my grandparents engaged in from gathering eggs, to planting, plowing and harvesting. My grandmother had a huge garden and sometimes took me with her into the root cellar. We went down the stairs into a small damp space smelling of earth. When she pulled the light cord the walls of the chamber were lined with glass jars containing fruits and vegetables, she had canned herself. This was magical to me! The red tomatoes, green and yellow beans and orange-hued peaches seemed to glitter like jewels. And them when we ate them! It was so different from what we ate at home.

My work as an artist has taken me to many places around the world. I make sure I can explain that I’m vegetarian in whatever language is spoken where I’m going. It’s never been a problem and I’ve eaten beautifully in Denmark, Japan, Lithuania, France, Italy and Turkey. So, needless to say I don’t find problems eating as I wish at home in the US. If I don’t find something to my taste on the menu, I often ask the server if the kitchen will prepare something vegetarian especially for me. I’ve long had the practice of asking lots of questions of my server and tipping heavily!

Spending almost my whole life up to now as vegetarian has contributed to my leading a basically healthy life. Attending to the details of what I eat has caused me to understand a lot about where my food comes from. This has led to a healthy lifestyle and to me taking responsibility not only for myself, but these interests have spilled over into my teaching. In my elective classes I’ve taken students camping to learn what can be gleaned from the land as materials for art-making and to study with the Land Institute in Kansas about the development of perennial grains for feeding the planet without harm to the environment, we’ve made “local pizza” in after school programs and played “hot potato” or “going on a picnic” with countless children in Kansas City schools.

What I’m saying is that when we take an interest in what we eat it affects not only our own bodies, but the bodies and mindset of others and indeed, we now know, that in the face of declining planetary health, it affects the very planet upon which our lives depend.
Karen M. September 2020