Food, glorious food! There are so many ways to interact with it and it possesses charm, nutrition and light energy when honored as it’s meant to be. In the last 4 years of getting to know each other, the gleaming truth that bonds us together is our common unyielding passion and obsession… food. We love everything about it and have grown to respect its prominent place in the world culture. But before we jump into the tantalizing topic, here’s a sampler plate of our journeys thus far…

Laura: The summer of 1982 marked my official initiation into the fast food frenzy. My friends and I ricocheted between the Golden Arches, the BK Lounge and Taco Hell. Since we referred to our hangouts by their pseudonyms, I guess even then I had an inkling that the “food” they served in these establishments could hardly be called such. It wasn’t until I was waiting to order my traditional Big Mac, large fries and large Diet Coke that I saw something that struck horror through my body… they were cleaning the grill with Ajax. I walked out, never to return. This was the pivotal event that made me more conscious about what I put into my body.

What was the catalyst that sparked your conscious eating?


Renee: I don’t know that there was one single event that changed my persuasion. It is as if my whole life led in that direction. I came into the world with an undeniable love for animals and the small things in the world. As a young child, I made a devastating connection between the meat on my plate and the beautiful creatures I adored. My mother was a vegetarian most of her life and growing up in white suburbia, this was anything but status quo. But my brother and I were not raised vegetarian. This gave me great pains and frustration later in life (why the hell did she feed me meat?!). My mother’s choice to raise us as omnivores was a big part of encouraging us to make our own choices. She did not want to inflict us with her own beliefs. When I asked her about why she was vegetarian, she casually explained that it was her choice based on her beliefs to not hurt others to help herself. Wow.

Laura: So was there any single event that pushed you over the edge to stop eating meat?

Renee: The last time I ate flesh is still disgustingly vivid. I was eating a piece of cooked ham and I must have gotten a bite with some skin on it. As I was chewing, the taste and the texture was so obviously flesh that I felt like I was eating my own arm. It rocked my world. I spit it out and never ate meat again. What about you?

Laura: 13 years ago I took my seat at a Chinese New Year’s celebration at my parents’ house. The table was overflowing with beautiful food that my mother had lovingly prepared along with the platters of fish, duck, chicken and roasted pork that my dad had graciously retrieved from Chinatown to complete the feast. All of the sudden, time dropped into slow motion for me. Just as my family was about to indulge in the most sacred of Chinese traditions, I declared, “This meal thoroughly disgusts me.” As the words left my mouth, I tried desperately to pull them back in and the rational voice in my head asked, “Who said that?” My gut answered, “Yo! It was me.” I was broad sided by the realization that I could no longer consume the animals looking in the eye. My moment of truth had arrived. My timing has never been great.

Renee: Remind me to thank my mom. I was raised with the freedom to make my own choices strongly tailed with the responsibility that I would have to deal with the outcome. At the ripe age of 5, I declared privately that when I turned 18, I would become vegetarian. To my growing mind, 18 was an “adult”, and an age where I would be able to make my own choices too. When I was about 13 or 14 and publicly declared that I was vegetarian, I grappled with the frustration of having not been encouraged earlier to make a choice I felt strongly about my whole life. I am deeply grateful to have come to these decisions by myself and with my own will and determination. I chose to become vegetarian during my raucous and rebellious adolescent years. Part of this was the realization that I had personal power and choice to the shape my immediate world. Another part was certainly absolute rebellion…I was going to do whatever I pleased (little did I know that in so many years to come that this choice would be less and less about me and more and more about the greater world we all live in). Did you have to deal with any fall out with family and friends?

Laura: Oh yes… my family kept trying to persuade me back into the corral. My mother constantly questioned me about where I was getting protein and calcium… everyone’s first question. That prompted me to educate myself about nutrition, which grew into a fascination still burning bright today. My circle of friends shifted a bit too. I never noticed how much my social activities revolved around food before I transitioned into a vegan diet. Eating out with friends and family was uncomfortable because everyone thought I was just being difficult as a tried to navigate myself through various menus, asking what ingredients were in the salad dressing or if the soup was made with chicken stock. Now that I look back on that, I realize it was one of my first steps toward reclaiming my body and myself from the dim food realities that most of the “civilized” world refers to as normal. It’s a commitment to self-respect as much as it is respect for living creatures.

Renee: Definitely. My choices in diet undeniably began to impact many corners and textures of my life. I realized fairly quickly after becoming vegan in college and fumbling with trying to feed myself that I would have to learn how to cook if I wanted to eat healthily and enjoy what I was eating. With all of this awakening and transformation came a terrible challenge to cope with the world and its indifference. I struggled with surviving in an institutional (university) system without losing myself. This is something so many of us are challenged with. How the hell to hang on to what we believe in and co-exist in the world. So, I am resolved everyday with my fork and my dollars to make a change for myself and for the planet. “When I do good, I feel good; When I do bad, I feel bad. And that is my religion.” (Abe Lincoln).

Laura: Simple basic truths to live by. In all this experimenting, a whole new world of food has opened up to me. It’s been an adventurous and tantalizing exploration into the unknown as I wandered through veganism, the living food diet and most recently the raw food realm. Not only has it defined who I am today and helped me uncover my personal truths it has also placed me on a path of political power that I had no idea existed. It’s exciting to be exploring the delicious world of food with you, Renee. And we still have so many adventures ahead!