conscious consumption 183
feel comfortable with that behavior and uncomfortable with
alternate behaviors.
Recently, I have managed to get my weight back down to
my high school weight and improve my overall health. This
effort was inspired by what I learned about food from reading
Michael Pollan ’ s books ( The Omnivore ’ s Dilemma: A Natural
History of Four Meals and In Defense of Food: An Eater ’ s
Manifesto ) and Jane Goodall ’ s book Harvest for Hope: A Guide
to Mindful Eating. I now eat local and organic. If I do eat meat
(other than seafood) and I occasionally do, it has to be from an
animal raised on its natural diet, not corn, even if it is organic
corn. Dairy products must be from cows raised on pasture and
eggs from real free - range chickens (not just chickens that are
raised with access to free range). I don ’ t eat anything contain-
ing high - fructose corn syrup or GM corn or its by - products.
On this diet, I eat well, take care of myself, my family, the
plants and animals, and the earth.
This sounds as if an intellectual process (learning about
food) had caused the change in my behavior. But it hadn ’ t.
What had happened was that this new knowledge made
me so angry that I decided not to play in their game. I have
always been a little paranoid. Then I went through the “ Yeah,
but that doesn ’ t mean they ’ re not out to get me ” stage. But
with this new knowledge about what is going on in the food
industry, I fi nally realized that I ’ m just collateral damage.
They don ’ t even know I ’ m here. I could now take the energy
provided by my anger and channel it into a behavioral change.
This behavioral change was caused by a powerful emotion:
anger.From my perspective, Bob ’ s change in thinking, eating, and being
came about by tapping into his passion or true heart ’ s desire. He
was then able to make a quantum leap in his awareness of what
he wanted to eat versus what he had been eating — in other words,
truly desiring to eat whole foods that are preferably organic and
locally grown because they are healthiest, rather than GM - corn - fed