OK. I'll come out of the closet...

Or I'll bring Trevor out.. He's officially a vegetarian.

It all started with Story of the World. Our history curriculum. We began by talking about the Nomads. Then the Nomads settled around the fertile crescent and became farmers. The book said something to the effect that the nomads discovered they could tame and pen up the wild animals and they didn't have to hunt anymore.

"that's cruel to the animals, mommy!" Trevor exclaimed.
"Um, how do you think we get our food now? The animals live on farms. People don't hunt all the often anymore." I replied.

Well.. the conversation kept on getting more and more indepth. I didn't mean to go into things, but by the end of our conversation- which *was* a conversation and not me being preachy- Trevor was a vegetarian.

"But Trevor, we get our meat from small family farms that allow their animals pasture and help them grow up in as natural an enviroment as possible."
"I don't want to eat meat anymore."

OK. Trevor has known- all the kids have known- that a chicken on a plate is the chicken we see at Frying Pan park. And a steak or burger is a cow. I have made this abundantly clear because I wanted them to know that they were eating an animal. I don't hide the fact that a carrot comes out of the ground or a peach grows on a tree. It was just a fact of life, nothing to make a big deal about. Well, I think this was the first time Trevor actually THOUGHT about it. To him, it wasn't fair that we trapped the animal and raised it solely to kill it- he thought the cow wouldn't really agree with that. Honestly, having been vegetarian myself, I had to agree with him. Given a choice, I'm sure the cow would rather not be eaten.

I remember playing this story based video game way back when I was younger. It was no pictures.. one of those stories you read and then you type something like "Go west" , etc. Well, I'd come across animals and I would say "Eat the ----" and the computer game would say "I don't think the --- would like that." I think that's the way Trevor feels.

So he's completely justified in how he feels about it. At first I asked if he would eat meat from small farms like we get our meat from and he agreed. So we ate vegetarian for a week until I could get my order from my local milk/meat people. I went Wednesday to pick it up. As I loaded the heavy, frozen, expensive bag into the car Trevor said "That's meat, mom! I don't want to eat meat!" *sigh* So he changed his conviction. I told him that I would fully support him if he was vegetarian but I would (probably) continue to eat meat sometimes as long as it was sustainably farmed. I thought FOR SURE, he would cave in his conviction. I should have known better.. he's my child- he can be passionate about things and focus on them completely. He's smart, he knows what he's talking about, he's not old enough to be swayed by a "trend factor" (oh, it's so trendy to be animal rights! It's so trendy to buy local!) so I should know better than to think he would cave when I did something like make the Zook's chipped steak I bought last night into steak sandwiches with onions and peppers. He ate a bun with cheese and a fake hotdog. This morning while we ate his much loved Niman Ranch bacon with eggs and hashbrowns, Trevor skipped the bacon and just ate eggs, hashbrowns and sourdough (the eggs also come from the milk source).

So he's pretty strong in his resolve to be vegetarian if he will skip BACON. He loves bacon. And i'm proud of him for sticking to his views even while we are enjoying bacon with breakfast. I'll help him.. I do see his point of view, and quite often I feel that way. I just also feel pretty crappy if I eat a great many carbs and no meat- which often seems to be the case in a vegetarian diet. Besides sourdough bread- my weakness- I am not a carb fan and that includes beans, pasta and potatoes. I am currently looking for a good whole foods EASY vegetarian (or vegan) cookbook which uses minimal meat substitutes as i still believe tofu isn't all the healthy, esp if eaten in quantities. I wonder if Nourishing Traditions can be taken in a vegetarian context.

The implications? Mom, New Bern.. I don't mind packing a cooler with a few things for Trevor. I don't know if vegetarianism will stick with him or if he will compromise and eat the meat I buy. If he sticks with being vegetarian, I'll pack some Boca burgers, etc for him in New Bern. For Pam.. if he's vegetarian while we're in Rome- I'll totally have lots of easy stuff on hand. ;) Mac n Cheese is vegetarian! It's always a favourite. heh. As of right now he is a pesco-vegetarian in that he will eat fish and dairy and eggs.