Imagine The World If We Ate Only Plant-Based Foods
earthpure
Posted On October 16, 2011
I was captivated by the thoughts of a bountifully diverse and teeming wildlife after reading “Plenty,” a book about eating locally by Alisa Smith & J.B. Mackinnon. They had me imagining a world where humans ate only plants, not because they were promoting that, but because of the imagery they recalled in the chapter “September.” The amazing abundance they described recalling the waters of the past between Seattle and Vancouver put me into a daydream. To paraphrase, they describe perhaps 600 humpback whales feeding on herring so plentiful the ocean floor can’t be seen and whole bays turning white with milt, the seminal fluid of fish. They describe the “herring ball” phenomenon in which the fish explode at the water’s surface with the sound of a giant exhalation, the water boiling silver. After the Herring they describe the oolichan, that were so rich in oil they could be dried and fitted with a wick to burn like a candle, who rushed in vast shoals of the Frazer river, spawning in shallows barely deep enough to cover their backs. The images of spring included the arrival of millions of migrating western sandpipers. In the autumn came snow geese and in winter, endless flocks of surf scoters. In their season, came the bald eagles who lined the riverbanks by the thousands, and the black brant geese arrived in numbers so vast as to darken the entire western sky.
At the mouth of the Fraser River the white sturgeon could weigh as much as a plough horse. In deeper waters the rockfish, which can live to be over 100 years old were plentiful. Finally they describe the salmon run of 50 million fish which prompted such names as Catch ’em With Your Hands Creek. I felt a sense of awe and wonder as I read this chapter. I juxtapose this imagery with my concerns of the, “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” dammed rivers, seagulls with mangled beaks and deformities due to chemical toxicity, oil spills and the chemical dispersants that the Gulf of Mexico was doused with to submerge and cover up the oil spill. I long for a glimpse of this abundant past.
The authors asked the question, “And what is the effect when the average citizen no longer has any idea of what “nature” can look like?” I felt a sense of loss when I read this as I did when I read “Undaunted Courage” about Lewis and Clark and tried to imagine what it was like to cross the Great Plains in the early 1800’s and witness the abundance of animal life. Here my dream begins and my resolve starts to flow. What if we ate plants for 100 years and lived in harmony with nature, put an end to GMOs and factory farming, cut down on meat consumption, and let our fellow earthlings run, swim and fly freely.
Might our children experience a landscape erupting in abundance once again, wild, clean and free? It reminds me that my simple everyday choices make a difference. I am, and will be thoughtful and conscious of my actions on the ecosystem, our greater consciousness, and the vitality of our planet earth. Letting my imagination run free with this imagery of not so long ago feels like a breath of fresh air in these modern times. I feel blessed to be living a plant based lifestyle.
Steve Brown
Originally Posted By:
Earthpure Founder Steve Brown on October 16, 2011
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