Today is Food Day and I would like to use this opportunity to link food issues and Occupy Wall Street. Many people are already doing this, as this poster and the following links from Marion Nestle’s site, Food Politics, shows.

Mother Jones: Foodies, Get Thee to Occupy Wall Street (<-If you only read one article read this one!!)

The Slow Food USA blog: Occupy Wall Street: What’s Food Got to do with it?

Civil Eats: Why the Food Movement Should Occupy Wall Street

These articles do a great job of discussing the global economy and how it affects our food choices, but you may already know this.  If you have ever worked all day and are too tired to make food or are out late and the only thing open is fast food- you probably know this intuitively. We work more and have more technology than ever yet less time to spend learning about nutrition and cooking food. Why? I think for the same reasons that Wall Street is being occupied. We work to create wealth, yet don’t benefit as much as we should. The wealth we create travels upward to those who already have more than us.  Want some proof? Business Insider compiled a fantastic set of graphs: What Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About.

In addition to Will Potter giving us 5 Reasons Why Environmentalists and Animal Activists Should Occupy Wall Street, the Declaration of the Occupation says:

# They [Corporations] have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.

How cool is that? And at OccupyLA there is even an affinity group called Occupiers for Animals.

Why are we protesting and what does it mean? I think Chris Hedges (Pultizer Prize winning war correspondent!) says it best in this video. Someone of his caliber, who has seen wars and uprisings all over the world in the previous three decades, getting this emotional over Occupy really captures its importance. Brought tears to my eyes.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-1TdemR7_Q&]

And from today’s Democracy Now! with Michael Moore and Cornell West:

OCCUPY LONDON PROTESTER: There is a political vacuum in the country at the moment. It doesn’t matter who you vote for, doesn’t matter what party gets in. The essential decisions are made, and what’s decided really is the same, no matter if it’s Labour or left, right, middle. You know, it’s all just middle now. So when there is no real choice there, because everything is the same, the people, I believe, feel like their voice has been taken away. And when you’re in a situation where your voice has been taken away, you have to make your voice.

Or is it now Class War as Frank Rich says in this 5-page New York Times article?

This is a lot to think about and sometimes it’s hard to grasp the importance of the current situation. But a movement is here, if we want it. All of us can help in some way. Education is a part of the equation (pass these resources on to your skeptical friend!), but action is most important. Like my first post about Occupy Wall Street said, let’s stop working toward temporary solutions and cut to the root of the matter.

“If you don’t let us dream, we won’t let you sleep”

Fifteen years ago today I split a bowl of ice cream with my friend Stacy, hours before I graduated high school. It was the last time I’ve knowingly eaten non-vegan food. Fifteen years! That day we said, ‘Let’s try to be vegan until the Earth Crisis show in two weeks.’  Like many activists, I got involved through hardcore music in the mid-90’s. I never would have imagined that 15 years later Earth Crisis would send out a message about one of my projects.  But here I am. Also my book with Isa, Appetite For Reduction, peaked in the top 100 of ALL books on Amazon. I’m incredibly fortunate. I’m writing about this not to brag, but to pass on the lessons I have learned.

My introduction to veganism was through the militant animal rights movement.  I became the super activist that ate, slept and breathed animal rights and veganism. I went to jail more than once for protesting. I chose nutrition as my undergrad major because of veganism. I was angry and motivated! The way that animals are treated is horrendous and I wanted to do as much as possible.

Then one day while I was still a teenager I was at a group dinner on a boring Saturday night. One kid was drawing pictures of everyone and mine had a voice bubble that said, ‘vegan vegan vegan vegan’ over and over again. It was accurate. I had become that person.  I was living the joke->

-How do you tell the vegan at a party?

-Don’t worry they will tell you.

Not long after that I moved to Penn State University for the last 2.5 years of my nutrition degree. Struggling to find an affordable place to live I moved into the living room of some Anarcho-Feminists. My reading broadened from Peter Singer and Edward Abbey to Malcolm X and Emma Goldman. Oppression of animals was obvious; institutionalized oppression of groups of people much less so. At PSU I was President of the Alliance for Animal Rights and active in my department promoting veganism, but my analysis had changed. I recognized world wide struggle and my own race and gender privileges. I never forgot about veganism, but I became active in the anti-capitalist, anti-globalization movement that roared into the 00’s.

You can’t change the world, but you can change yourself. –Sick of it All

At a grad school that actively promoted vegetarianism and was the most diverse place I had ever been, I learned even more about my place in the world. I traveled to Chiapas and smuggled art back for a radical Catholic group that raised money for the Zapatistas.  My veganism never waned, but I was less interested in being defined by it. Not long after that I was teaching and working in South Central Los Angeles with a slant toward social justice. Vegan nutrition went to the back burner.

Then about two years ago I got re-energized. It seemed that more people were vegan than ever. Isa contacted me about contributing to her newest book. I suddenly got more requests than ever for private consultation for vegans. And here I am.

You must be the change you want to see in the world. -Gandhi

I’m now applying the vegan label to myself and my projects: vegan dietitian, vegan athletes, vegan nutrition,  etc.  But  my worldview is expanded from ten years ago. And while my place in the world is bigger than it was because of the opportunities I’ve had, I’m still just one person.  There’s only so much I can do.  But what I can do is significant: lead by example.  Be a healthy, positive vegan that pushes people to think about their choices and how it affects other living beings without pushing them to blindly adopt my ethics and actions. And knowing how my life and privileges affect others. There’s a whole world of oppression out there beyond humans over animals. Read a thing or two (or hundred?) about those struggles, too.  Never stop learning because the day you are convinced that you know enough about everything is the day you become a new-age wacko. And we don’t need any more vegans like that…

So if you are new to veganism and angry about how animals are treated, I’m with you. My advice is to channel that anger into something positive.  Berating My Trainer Bob about eating egg whites does not save any animals.  I don’t want to get on the old-guy soapbox here, but the kids in the mid-90’s who didn’t find positive channels for their anger about animal abuse stopped being vegan. And their criticism of near-vegans probably brought down a fair number of them, too.

Meanwhile, I’d love to hear about my readers’ projects! If you are working on something related to this post-and not just veganism- please let me know in the comments.