carbon conscience

Found myself in mixed company (omnivores, carnivores...) the other day, and stuck my neck out by quoting internet-sourced statistics - a meat-based diet requires 7 times more land than a plant-based diet, meat production uses 10 to 20 times more energy than grain production, red meat production uses 100 times more water than...and so on.

Since I was quoting "facts" I couldn't verify myself, I was quickly backed into a corner - but it made me think...

I wonder if anyone has made calculations comparing the carbon footprint of a fruitarian lifestyle with other options. My own experience tells me that the outcome would be very interesting indeed.

A fruitarian kitchen is a very uncomplicated, uncluttered place. No cooking means No need for most of what you'd find in a "normal" kitchen - which means that none of that stuff needs to be manufactured, marketed, transported, powered, discarded... and if your garden (or your neighbour's garden) feeds you - no packaging, no transport, no marketing machinery, none of that commercial madness & misery...

And that is but the beginning... now think of the environmental balance sheet, which begins with fruitarians planting trees, and trees, and more trees, and not needing to cut down trees to fuel cooking fires....

If I hadn't chosen this way for myself a long, long time ago, I suspect that I would have found the carbon footprint issue a convincing enough argument to say goodbye to the bloody fleshpots... if you know what I mean.

don't fear for your friendships

Are you concerned about the possibility that your fruitarian life may cost you your friendships ? Relax - you may be surprised.

My dear friend, M, who is completely accepting of my way of life, but certainly doesn’t have any desire to change his own very different relationship to food, came to stay with us for a few days. One afternoon I opened the fridge to find something I really didn’t expect and hadn’t had to deal with for many years: a sizable parcel of raw & bloody meat. M was going to have a barbecue.

It took me a few hours, but eventually I felt rational enough to tell him that this was just not something that was appropriate for me any longer. And then what could have remained an awkwardness between friends relaxed into farce. M was contrite, apologetic, shocked at his own insensitivity, and undertook to bury the meat immediately. We considered this for a bit, and then decided that – in a world with millions of starving people – maybe he shouldn’t do that. OK, then perhaps he should find a needy person to whom he could give the meat – he’ll think about it some more.

At that point I had to leave for a few hours. While I was away M found his solution. He cooked the whole lot & ate it all in one sitting. The sacrifices of friends ! It’s most endearing.

the beginning

To begin at the beginning...

Yes of course Dylan Thomas said it first; he had to - he was born 38 years before me, so he had plenty of time & got first innings. But the phrase served him well and is none the worse for having been used before, so To begin at the beginning -

Oh, and the reference to my age is in fact relevant, as will become clear later - the relevance, that is, not my age. So. To begin ...

Sorry - one more thing. The reference to Dylan Thomas is in fact also relevant. A sublime poetic voice, silenced before he was 40. Why ? Usual suspects: lifestyle choices, and we'll get back to that - in fact it's sort of the point of all of this. But first,

To begin at the beginning - it was My Fair Lady on the opera house stage. No, I wasn't the fair lady, and I wasn't on stage. I was in the outside broadcast truck - the only female among the rather rough diamonds in the television crew (the senior engineer carried a gun, and probably needed to). I was also the only one who wasn't on the meat-tobacco-alcohol nutritional plan. I was in fact a fruitarian a.k.a. fruitflake & nutcase.

But of course that wasn't really the beginning. It began well before that, and in an even more unkind & uncaring environment - a hospital bed. Fast forward to 2 weeks later to find me climbing a big mountain. Two short weeks from medical crisis to active & healthy. What happened ? Fruitarianism happened, and that brings me to the Real Beginning of my story.

Back to the Welshman. Remember that grand, now immortal, poem he wrote for his dying father: "Do not go gently into that good night - Rage, rage against the dying of the light" ? Well 50 years ago there was a young South African woman who felt her life ebbing away - her body was in fact moving towards death. But then the fates offered her one last chance. What followed became an amazing account of survival, of her own "fight against the dying of the light" - but that story is hers to tell. Her name is Essie Honiball, and because of her story, I chose the fruitarian lifestyle.

So it really all began with Essie Honiball - although she will tell you it all began long before her. And she'll be right. But more about that later.

Oh, The Kyloe Experiment ? Well, more about that too, later...