On refraining from meat

I became a vegetarian when I was in college and admittedly, it can feel like a hassle. Not to say that maintaining the diet is difficult, but just explaining the reasoning behind it can get taxing. Then again it’s interesting to hear why people eat in a certain way, even if it’s not really a huge part of who they are (or their perception of their being).

My childhood was somewhat focused on meat eating and, most importantly, grossing my sisters out by eating huge lumps of steak fat. I actively ate any cow, pig, chicken, and/or other meat that graced my parent’s kitchen. And I enjoyed the hell out of it. I don’t recall the exact point in my younger years when I started feeling awkward about eating something I couldn’t kill with my own hands…there are two incidents that come to mind though. Once my Dad found a big rat in the corn house and, knowing full well that this rat was stealing his horse feed, he stomped it to death. I felt an overwhelming sense of despair that my (then) heroic/godly father would boot this poor creature to death. Maybe I just sympathized with the rat’s need to find food? I’m sure it also had to do with watching the Secret of Nimh around that age, but regardless…

The other scenario that comes to mind is a hunting trip. I had been deer hunting with my Dad before, but this time he wanted to give me a chance to actually shoot, rather than just observe the process. He went off in a thicket to try and scare deer, while I waited in the field with the shotgun at the ready. Sure enough, a young doe took off running across my field of vision. I started to squeeze the trigger…and couldn’t. I wanted to…really anything to impress my Dad and prove that I wasn’t a well-kept city boy. I realized though that no matter what, I felt an ethical conflict with shooting a living creature. It was personal and it felt like a true self-realization.

Several years later and I chose a meat-free existence (or nearly so). I didn’t want to go outside and butcher an animal, so I didn’t want to fry up ground beef from a plastic wrapped package in a grocery store. It was helpful later on to learn that it was an environmentally friendly and healthy choice….but I can’t pretend like that had anything to do with my decision. Maybe it reinforces that choice now, but that’s about it.

I like it that my wife chooses to eat in a different way…I guess it just keeps it interesting. Plus she normally chooses local, free range meat. So she’s actually going a step beyond me and creating a “yes” vote for an alternative to the factory fed, agribusiness method of meat consumption in the US. We talk sometimes about raising chickens and, though I would feel awkward about it, I wouldn’t feel opposed to raising them for meat if they’re treated well. But if I have to get the chopper block out…I’m pretty sure I would change my mind. Plus I’m sure I would end up naming each chicken and that would be the end of the road.

Land Ahoy

My wife and I are thinking about buying a piece of land near Lawrence. It’s kind of amusing to think of land ownership in general…sort of like planting your flag and pretending that somehow this particular land belongs to you and no one else. Aside from this human urge to claim what is not ours, I want to protect a small part of the earth and act as a good steward.

Kiva and I are both interested in sustainable land stewardship and doing what we can for long-term preservation. Conservation easements, or the practice of legally protecting land from subdividing, is an amazing concept. It’s been increasingly popular in the United States, particularly where land is more threatened by urban development. You won’t end up having ethically flexible developers coming and creating an expanded city in a pristine area.

There are a few protected land sites around this city that are owned by the local universities, including KU , Baker, and HINU. It would be cool to have land that’s adjacent to one of those sites...having that peace of mind that your surroundings won’t end up like postage stamp mini subdivisions is rewarding enough, but we could also create another conservation easement and increase land that is protected in perpetuity.

We’ve been looking at deeply wooded sites, which are few and far between around here. There are obvious benefits in a site like that…privacy and wildlife in particular. The main drawback is trying to decide where a veggie garden might go…and you might as well dismiss a photovoltaic setup, since you’d have to chop down half your site to get the prerequisite sunlight. I think overall though we’d prefer the woods over any pasture land. Like Kiva said, we can always lease out a neighbor’s field if I ever got the gumption to be an organic farmer. Who knows…

Life in the Bus Lane

I’m a proponent of rapid bus service. Actually any form of transportation that doesn’t guzzle gas and pollute our atmosphere. If it doesn’t make me feel guilty, I’m all for it.

Lawrence is a relatively small city that doesn’t sprawl out into suburbs and exurbs. It’s refreshing to be able to go anywhere in about 15 minutes. Traffic doesn’t clog the main arteries until rush hour…and even then, compare that to DC traffic and you’ll find it laughable. For that very reason we have a different way of thinking about public and alternative transportation. Yes, it can still be faster than taking a car. I can probably bike through downtown faster than a car in traffic…but in general, it’s more convenient to use your car rather than walk, bike, or use the city bus system. Convenience is the ultimate driver for these alternative transportation modes, but many are also compelled by environmental concerns, a want of exercise, and maybe even exploring the world outside of the vehicle.

So far I’ve tried cycling to work and taking the bus back and forth. The bus system, called the T bus, offers smaller buses that come every 30-40 minutes. I was actually kind of shocked on my first ride when I boarded and the driver asked where I was going. “Do you need a transfer?” After nodding, she radioed on the walkie talkie and noted that a passenger would transfer at X station around X time. Hilarious! The other bus actually waited for me and I ended up being its sole passenger! Very different from my DC bus rides, where I was truly one in a million as far as the drivers were concerned (and rightly so).

This T bus system got me thinking though…why not run the buses more often and generate wider ridership? Even though it’s a small city with than 100,000 residents, if it was convenient to get to downtown from home and the bus ran every 10-15 minutes, more people would leave their cars and take the bus. Of course it would be difficult to explain this to city officials when you barely have riders or even public support at the moment. And why even bother when there’s a “recesh” going on?

Of course, one could bring up the efficient rapid bus systems that have sprung up elsewhere. US cities like San Francisco and Pasadena are exploring versions, but South American countries like Brazil are the true pioneers of the “BRT.” Buses in the city of Curitiba, for example, would come by your selected stop every 1-5 minutes. The stations are well located and kept in great condition…and people like taking the bus . “Around 70 percent of Curitiba’s commuters use the BRT to travel to work.” Imagine what you could do if you planned a city around efficient bus transport like that…particularly without spending millions on an underground rail system that constantly needs expensive maintenance.

With increased gas prices and traffic, many US urbanites have shunned the automobile for public transit. Unfortunately it’s not a very rapid shift and it comes in different stages. We have to put more pressure on our city officials to choose less expensive, more efficient alternatives to automobiles.

Down with the cars! Stupid, insolent cars.

Mandatory recycling...or do as we please?

Recycling is one of the first things I pay attention to when I visit a city for the first time. My wife and I went out to San Francisco twice last year to visit friends and I was envious of their municipal waste system…odd, yes, but I’m being honest. The city actually mandates recycling AND residential composting! Not surprising then that they claim a 72%+ recycling rate…reportedly the highest on Earth.

My new city of Lawrence, meanwhile, only boasts a slight jump on the national average: a whopping 35% in 2007. Apparently that’s better than the every other city in the State of Kansas. Of course it was 34% in 2003, so we’re not really seeing a strong increase in public participation. I’m not sure if you can expect a substantial increase if you have a private, voluntary curbside recycling program. City officials like the Division Manager for Solid Waste, Bob Yoos, are complacent with the status quo. He has been a constant voice in the ears of the city government…why choose a public option and have that added expense when we’re already above the national average?

I do, however, like having Sunflower Recycling as my curbside recycling company. The downside: I pay $12/month for bi-weekly recycling and I have to sort everything before pickup. Advantage: the service provider actually cares about recycling and ensures the items end up where they are supposed to go. I didn’t have the same level of trust with my public recycling option in the suburbs near DC. I suppose the upside to private service is the motivation that fee-paying customers can induce. I really do have a vote, whereas with the public option the county would likely ignore my requests for improved service.

I don’t think there has to be a compromise. Mandatory curbside recycling is necessary if you want to truly change the status quo and divert a majority of waste from the landfill. Cities like San Francisco have proven that they can provide a public option that works. I hope Lawrence eventually gets with the program.

Starting to Breathe

A month has passed since we moved to Lawrence and I'm just starting to realize where I am. It's odd how humans need a sense of routine to grow comfortable with our surroundings. I felt the same way when I moved to Bangladesh in 2003...I woke up every morning feeling bewildered until my activities, perceptions, and mini-universe fell into a regular schedule. I'm happy that this happened here and relatively quickly at that.

The move itself was fraught with logistics and constant things to do. Renting a PODS container turned out to be a mistake. Since we didn't know if we were renting or buying, and didn't know if we required short-term storage, it seemed like a wise choice at the time....but having a full-service move by one company would have been a LOT less stressful. I guess the one good thing that came out of the PODS move was a smaller environmental impact....i.e. PODS containers are loaded with other containers and shipped out in "car pool" style, so it's less gas guzzling in total.

That's it for now. I'll be sure to write more about my first observations in Lawrence and hopefully switch into the present tense soon. The present always sounds better in my opinion.