PLANT A RADISH, GET A RADISH...

"Food choices are often...difficult to articulate yet strongly held." I second this statement by Natalie Angier which can be found in today's New York Times Science Times section. When people inquire why it is that I'm a vegetarian - a question that is typically posed while we are sharing a meal - my reply is "Because I don't like to eat dead animals." Natalie Angier let's us know that "Brussels Sprouts Like to Live, Too." I know this. I've known this for a long time. As long as I've been a vegetarian. Thanksgiving 1971 to be precise. I found the snippets of information, in Ms. Angier's article, about plants and their quests and mechanisms for staying alive fascinating. Turns out plants can be quite sophisticated.

So, I'm not eating dead animals but I am eating sophisticated dead plants. And so are you. Now what?

I recently learned about civic dietetics which integrates social, environmental and economic sustainability aspects of food choices into dietetics. Civic dietetics is a phrase coined by Jennifer Wilkins and you can read about it in the Journal of Agriculture and Human Values which I became aware of in Ashley Colpaart's piece in Tufts Nutrition.

Let's learn more about civic dietetics and about the amazing world of vegetables. Let's continue to forge ahead and figure out how to feed the citizens of the world - with food that is likely to be of plant origin. A challenge? Yes. Imperative? Absolutely.