Here are my thoughts ...
1. Eating a plant-based diet is much healthier than eating processed foods, meat, and dairy
2. Whether we like it or not, there are enormous issues of injustice connected to our food choices - the further removed we become from the growing/harvesting of plants and the raising/slaughter of animals the more we lose touch with the ethical questions associated with our food choices.
3. As we corporately wake up and realize that we live on a limited planet with limited resources, we need to ask questions of sustainability; the amount of animal products that we eat is not sustainable (in order for me to eat beef, a cow must have eaten a lot of plants vs. me just eating plants - so I, then, 'eat lower on the foodchain' when I eat a plant-based diet)
**Fun fact** "If everyone ate the diet of an average U.S. citizen, the earth could feed 2.5 billion people well. Italians use about half the grain we do, and if everyone ate like Italians, the earth could sustain 5 billion people well. If we all ate the way they do in India, the world could feed 10 billion people well. Our current world population is 6.8 billion."
Interpretation: In the U.S. we eat very differently from the rest of the world currently and throughout history. Our abuse of resources effects our global neighbors. Loving our neighbor as ourself demands that we understand how our passive involvement in a broken system directly effects our neighbor.
4. As Christians, we can't ignore the ethical and justice issues that surround food choices.
5. As Christians, we have to engage with the biblical mandate to steward the earth - how are we honoring God with the way we care for creation? What are we leaving for future generations?
6. God's creative handiwork is seen in the variety of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, oats, rice, etc. There is so much to enjoy - who needs chemically processed/engineered food? :)
Goodness - hope y'all don't think I'm turning into too much of a hippie.
this seems like a natural movement for you :) i totally support the plant-based diet. but, i really see a lot of my friends who go vegan fall into eating a ton of processed foods in order to pretend they are still eating "mac n cheese" or "burgers." i love the idea of healthy eating, cutting down on meat and dairy, but replacing it all with over-processed, unnatural food seems backward to me. not that you are doing that, of course! just be careful not to OD on Oreos and Bocas :)
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