Andrew Nosal’s Reviews > The Good Eater: A Vegan’s Search for the Future of Food > Status Update

“My first question is always ‘Did you talk to the people in this community? Do they want what you’re trying to bring? Do they want to go out of their way to the farmers market when they’re being paid minimum wage? Do they want to tend to the garden you’re trying to grow?”

These are the questions I wasn't asking myself. Interesting!

"Yet only about 3 percent of Alzheimer’s disease cases are determined by genes. Neurologists now estimate that about 90 percent of Alzheimer’s disease is preventable through a healthy lifestyle, especially diet, and the same is true of other forms of dementia."

I am not spending all of this time learning about food only to forget it all. Nobody's got time for Alzheimer's! Eat your greens!

“Like a lost jewel that takes greater effort to find than it does to keep in the first instance, good health, once it is lost, costs much time and effort to regain.” - Mahatma Gandhi

It's about time we give our bodies what they deserve. 🍎🍊🥬🍠🌾🫘🥜

"[...] Farms grow crops that have all sorts of damaging effects on local ecosystems. They sell these crops, unprofitably, to factory farms for animal feed that makes animals sick, in order to make products that in turn make us sick. Working together, both the government and subsidized farms produce food that ultimately serves no one except those who profit from the bottom line [...]."

Systematic change.

"As is, humans cultivate less than 1 percent of the estimated edible plant species that exist in the world. For millennia, we have focused on improving the productivity of a smaller number of existing crops rather than increasing crop diversity. That has created a food system that is susceptible to potentially catastrophic losses due to disease and climate change."

Above all, think of the food we're missing out on!

"Based on data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, they calculated that we'd need to raise 30 percent more cattle than we do now if we moved toward an entirely grass-fed system for all beef. That's because cattle eating their natural diet of grass take longer to fatten up and don't gain nearly as much weight as those on feedlots, who are fed a diet of corn and soy."

So maybe just stop eating beef 🤔

"When I was younger," chimed in Poncia, "people thought margarine was better for you. Ten years from now we'll be saying, Remember when we thought Impossible was better for you than the real thing?"

Not me over here with a freezer stock full of veggie burgers 😅

"We have since learned that although protein is undoubtedly important, it's just one of a whole plethora of nutrients that are essential for health and well-being."

You can stop eating your protein chips and Pop-Tarts, and still have a healthy, nutritious, balanced diet.

"I think it's important to have a holistic viewpoint of the food system. We should be asking ourselves, how is what we're making going to impact animals? How will it impact the planet? How will it impact people - their wages and their way of life? Will the system be democratized or is it going to further consolidate our food sector?"

I don't know, but that's why we're out here trying to come to some truths!

Animal agriculture supplies only 18 percent of the world's calories while taking an enormous share of plant calories in feed. For every 100 calories of crops that could be fed to humans, we get only 40 calories of milk, 22 calories of eggs, 12 calories of chickens, 10 calories of pork, and a mere 3 calories of beef!