Super Eco

Photo credit: Obsessed

Mark Bittman may not know the difference between gray salt and pink salt (he says Gwyneth Paltrow does; and he doesn't want to). He doesn't care about organic produce. But if he's going to start preaching: we need to talk about the proportion of food that we eat. "What's important is that we eat a hugely disproportional amount of animal products and junk food." He's got straight talk for Prius drivers: if you're driving a Prius because you want to reduce your carbon footprint, "you should be consuming less animal products, less processed food, less junk food."

Want to do "the most principled thing you can"? Be a vegan. But as he points out: you can be a vegan and still eat really, really badly, with the proliferation of vegan junk food in the market today. He breaks it down, as he is wont to do, in simple on one hand/on the other hand decisions. Trade off half a pound of meat for half a pound of cheese, and you'll have zero effect on the environment; if you choose a half a pound of vegan chocolate bars over half a pound of pizza, "that environmentally is a better decision, but you're going to kill yourself." What you should do? Gorge yourself on fresh vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, dried fruits and "you will not gain weight, you will reduce your carbon footprint, you will be healthier."

The video with Samantha Ettus and Gary Vaynerchuk is unedited and long, but it's worth thinking about Bittman's "less-meatarian" approach to eating and environmental consciousness. And I think I'm going to go get a cupful of dried cherries and gorge.