Ben Shaberman was a vegetarian who met a vegan woman. He became a vegan. And he realized that this was good for the environment, and himself.
I’ll always remember in 1973 standing on a freeway overpass near downtown Cleveland with my aunt and uncle, watching flames and smoke billowing up from the Cuyahoga River below us. No, there hadn’t been a boating accident. The river itself was on fire. As a 12-year-old at the time, it was a pretty cool spectacle. I knew pollution was bad, but back then I was more pyromaniac than environmentalist, so the scene was entertaining, not alarming.
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Fast forward to 1991, when I had evolved to become a little more sensitive to the world around me and went vegetarian for the happiness and welfare of animals. Why kill animals for food if we didn’t have to? I became an herbivore without any influence from radical left-wing factions or activist groups. And while animals are obviously part of the environment, my lifestyle change was in no way environmentally motivated — at least the environment as I had then interpreted it, i.e., air, water, land, etc.
But then in 2004, I was smitten with a vegan woman, Jeannie, and her beautiful black cats, Samson and Delilah, and the rest, as they say, is history. Within a few months, I became vegan — a full-blown, card-carrying member of Them. Rather than sacrificing animals, we do crazy things with tofu. We worship seitan (wheat gluten), not Satan. Really, most vegans aren’t that wacko — we just go a step further than vegetarians by cutting out all animal products from our diets, namely dairy and eggs.
As a result of my conversion, Jeannie regularly dragged me to various vegan potlucks, festivals, and educational events. While the food was always great, all the lecturing and proselytizing wasn’t exactly my kind of entertainment. I came up with all sorts of excuses to avoid them: “Sorry, honey, I can’t make it. I have an appointment for a blood-letting.” But honestly, it was at those vegan gatherings that I became educated on how raising animals for food had a tremendously negative impact on the planet.
For example, I learned that domestic cattle release more greenhouse gasses than all cars, buses, trains, and airplanes combined. That’s because the animals fart methane, a gas that traps radiation, warming the planet, much more readily than the carbon dioxide produced by automobiles.
I also learned that 70 percent of the agricultural land on the Earth is used to raise food to feed the animals we eat. Not only is that an inefficient use of land — especially when a billion people around the world are starving — the huge amounts of poop from all those animals contaminate our water supplies. A one-thousand pound cow produces more than 11 tons of manure every year. There’s simply no room for all that doo-doo.
All these facts were just the tip of the proverbial (and quickly melting) iceberg. There was a lot more to the sobering reality of animal-eating that really shocked and depressed me — especially the horrible conditions in which livestock are raised. Bottom line: We Americans consume 9 billion farm animals a year, and it isn’t sustainable — economically or environmentally.
“You’re not a true environmentalist if you’re not vegan,” the Zealots would say, over and over again, at the vegan gatherings. And they made a convincing, fact-based argument.
Over time, those vegan events inspired me to find new ways I could help the environment. Instead of ordering coffee in disposable paper cups, I began using a stainless-steel tumbler for my daily visits to Starbucks. I also started using cloth bags when I went to the grocery store and stainless-steel containers for take-out food. And while I still drive my Honda Fit way too much — almost 2,000 miles a month — it does get more than 30 miles per gallon.
When I was a kid and left the lights on, my Grandpa Army would always grumble, “What do you got? Stock in the electric company?” Well, the answer to his smart-ass question is still no — I do have stock in Apple, grandpa! — but he’d be pleased with how much better I am about conserving electricity and water.
However, the pinnacle of my environmentalism came recently when Jeannie came back from a week-long nutritional conference in Florida led by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. (I couldn’t go — I had a blood-letting appointment.) When it comes to espousing a healthy, plant-based diet, Fuhrman, a former champion figure skater, is a real badass. I’ve heard the guy speak, and let’s just say he isn’t exactly the “let’s hold hands and sing Kumbaya” type. It’s his way or the highway, and he’ll glare and bark in his strong Jersey accent at anyone who questions his beliefs. Fuhrman’s dietary regimen goes well beyond the elimination of animal products — it calls for no sugar, salt, caffeine, bread, chips, or anything that’s processed. I never believed the guy was wrong — just over the top. As a vegan, I felt like I was doing enough already.
Well, I couldn’t believe how Jeannie had transformed after just a week on his wacky diet. She lost weight and walked with a spring in her step. Her skin had a new silky glow to it. I can’t tell you her real age for fear of dismemberment, but she looked ten years younger after returning from the Fuhrman-palooza.
Inspired by her experience, I decided to give the diet a shot for a week and see how I did. Well, in a few days, I too was transformed and felt like a new man. I still do caffeine and a little sugar, but at 53, I feel better than I have throughout my entire adult life. The amount of organic produce I consume is scary and expensive, but I’ve found gastrointestinal enlightenment in tangerines, bananas, lentils, spinach, broccoli, and carrots.
However, while at the grocery the other day, admiring a display of beautiful Concord grapes, I had a new epiphany that really blew my mind. (I know that sounds redundant, but stay with me here.) I envisioned my body as an ecosystem, teeming with life — all sorts of cells, bacteria, viruses, and microorganisms — as well as liquids, minerals, and gasses. My skin was like soil, veins and arteries like rivers, and bones like rocks and mountains. My body, I had realized, was my final environmental frontier.
Of course, this has been my own personal environmental evolution. What works for me dietarily might not work for you. But the reality is: Environmentalism really starts and ends with our own bodies. However, one thing to keep in mind regardless of what you eat: Those blood-lettings will make you pretty woozy.
Photo courtesy of the author.
Went vegetarian-mostly-vegan a few years ago due to mixture of a need to loose weight, concern with the environment, and a love of cooking. Definitely worked for me – 40 lbs and much healthier later. Oh I still do the occasional bit of meat or cheese, but it’s a luxury.
But man, giving up caffeine, tellingly, sounds the hardest . . .
Yeah, I still more caffeine than I should.