I can’t remember where I saw it, but I feel like today is a good time to revisit the concept of “Vegan + bacon”.
People often avoid making small positive changes because they get caught up in trying to go all the way. For example, “I could never go vegan. I love bacon too much”.
So then go vegan plus bacon. Or vegetarian plus bacon. Or just switch to oat milk and eat more vegetables. Whatever small change you can make is good
Maybe you can’t buy everything local. What one thing can you start buying local? Can you switch from Starbucks to the local coffee shop? Can you switch from Petco to the local pet feed store? Can you switch from Dominoes to a local pizza place?
Maybe you can’t completely de-Google or de-Apple or de-Amazon your life. Can you switch one thing? Can you use DuckDuckGo? Move your passwords to Bitwarden? Open a Fastmail account?
@danirabbit Conversely, it’s incredibly easy to get swept up in the “I’m gonna do good!” thought and bite off more than you can chew. You see it with folks who get into privacy all the time; they actually MAKE the huge switches, get completely burnt, then go back to how they were feeling defeated.
Moderation isn’t just good advice those nervous to make big changes. It’s also a good mentality for those who want it all, but might forget that that doesn’t mean all at once.
@danirabbit There's the whole performative aspect of it too. Like, I tried switching to DuckDuckGo, and switched back to Google because the search results, which are just Microslop Bing as I understand it, we're objectively worse. No big announcement, just installed udm14 and went on with my life. The only reason anyone knows I switched to Debian is because I'm a huge nerd and like talking about my computer crimes. (And making "lesbian" puns.)
And maybe I'm overly cynical, since "I switched to this significantly less affordable thing which is morally superior" is just not an option for me, but I think that is why people don't do vegan plus bacon, because you can't brag about it.
@SymTrkl @danirabbit have you tried #Qwant It’s a search engine not fakin’ bacon
@parismarx has a good guide for getting off US tech
@danirabbit And you might just find that it was worth it for more reasons than you first thought.
I've become a regular at one of my local coffee shops, and at this point I've gotten to know the owner, employees, and some of the other regulars well enough that I go there as much for the community as the coffee at this point!
@danirabbit this is exactly how to do it. Another thing: Cash.
It seems crazy, but the reality is that massive credit card companies and banks keep your money outside of your city/town and invest it there.
I just paid $20 for lunch at my local cafe. I know the guys who work there are getting paid off the books, so they're taking that same cash home and stopping at the bodega for food, and paying in cash, giving their kids allowance in that cash, shopping at the chinatown hardware stores in cash, etc....
the money gets multiplied and stays out of the hands of big corp. And the reaility is that, no matter how liberal, *ALL* big corporations are bad. ALL of them have a negative effect on your home town. ALL of them.
Small business + Cash whenever possible.
These are all really good ideas, for making small, productive changes. Thanks for pointing them out.
I'm a bit afraid that, as a company in the USA, Kagi is potentially black-mailable by the current administration there.
And they do force me to log in before I can search, so my searches are easily attributable to me.
Not sure what to think.
@danirabbit People usually underestimate how much difference small, incremental changes make over time.
If you get into the habit of preparing, say, 2 vegan meals per week, that's 100 vegan meals per year.
Plus, once you've got the hang of it, adding a third vegan meal isn't so hard. Or sometimes a fourth one, maybe. And suddenly you're at 150 per year.
It's the same for all the other good things. Doing a little, on a regular basis, just adds up, and opens further opportunities for change
@slothrop @danirabbit Depending on some things, two vegan mails a week is the Orthodox way, outside of fasting periods, of course. (If things are a bit laxer than the strictest form, it's going to be vegetarian.)
I had to give up on that because I got really sick at some point, but I'm compensating that by barely travelling anywhere anymore! (Because I'm too sick...)
@danirabbit all of these switches are in itself insignificant. All of them together are significant.
It matters. Do it, you're a part of something bigger!
@danirabbit
I've been degoogling for several years. First was duckduckgo, then I started using my own domain for email. Then I moved that email domain off of Google's servers. Then I canceled my youtube subscription. Recently I canceled my YouTube Music subscription in favor of #Qobuz.
I still use Android. I still use Google maps. I still watch YouTube videos. I maintain my Gmail account for legacy reasons. But I'm using Google much less and they no longer directly receive any of my money.
@bruce @danirabbit Great!
If you are trying to get off Google Maps, can I recommend @organicmaps or @CoMaps
I use Organic Maps daily on Android, and it's great. You can download parts (or all) of your country so it works offline.
If there are bits missing or changed, I can tag them and upload changes to OpenStreetMap (where the data comes from).
I think it's more detailed than Google Maps these days, certainly for European countries.
The only time I use Google Maps is when someone sends me a Google Maps link (😡), but there's even an app for that: https://f-droid.org/packages/page.ooooo.geoshare/ 🥳 (it's installed, but I haven't really used it much yet).
@chewie @danirabbit @organicmaps @CoMaps
One of the most essential features in Google Maps is the place reviews. I find them extremely helpful in gathering information about the shipping and receiving offices I visit as part of my job.
So far, I haven't found a good replacement. This will likely remain true so long as Google maintains its dominance in this space.
@chewie @bruce @danirabbit @organicmaps @CoMaps
Google maps is the only one which will return the location of an exact street address.
All the others just show you the street.
So if I search for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and it's a long street I don't know exactly where that is.
I'm happy to be wrong about this. Tell me one of the non Google maps does this for me.
@notyourfanboy @chewie @danirabbit @organicmaps @CoMaps
OpenStreetMaps usually does a good job at address resolution for me. They are less good at knowing what businesses may exist at a given address, though they seem to be getting better at that, too. If you are on Android, look for the OSM+ app.
@notyourfanboy @bruce @danirabbit @organicmaps @CoMaps it looks like it works on https://openstreetmap.org too
Of course, this only works if someone has been round and mapped it :)
Some countries have open licences for their map data so there have been bulk imports, but others have been less helpful.
For example, post codes in the UK are "owned" by the Post Office and you used to need a licence to use them (I think that has changed now), so a lot of UK addresses have missing postcodes.
I try and add them when possible, as they are quite useful, and there are still a lot missing :(
@FinalGirl Fully with you on this.
@FinalGirl @danirabbit Adam Mastroianni's blog today has a very nice article on “Underrated Ways to Change the World (part II)”
https://www.experimental-history.com/p/underrated-ways-to-change-the-world-b64
@danirabbit yeah, never understood people complain about others only doing things half way.
Like every single bit helps. And people should also never blame themselves for not meeting set up standards like "I'll be vegan from now on". This isn't a competition you can "fail".
Exploring vegan options is a process and some things you'll like and others you won't + there are also dietary restrictions
Disclosure: I'm totally the kind of person who would go for a vegan patty + bacon burger thing 🙃
@danirabbit
I love the message shared here!
I've been doing something like that.. sort of? I haven't bought meat in a couple of weeks, but I still haven't completely abolished it (meal at work, meals with the family)
Was I to completely abolish any and all meat, I think I'd end up "burnt out", and going back to the unhealthy meat consumption
Completely abolishing meat is part of the future plan, but if I have to have a cheat day, then so be it, I think I am proud of myself for the change I've done, and I definitely think this idea is a good way to get people to also make the change
@danirabbit yes! it applies to a lot of stuff!
doing something is better than doing nothing. what good is trying to be perfect or going all the way when you feel like it's too much tackling all at once?
@danirabbit Yeah. Don't want to go vegetarian/vegan entirely, so my wife and I just cut our meat consumption considerably, especially cow since it's the worst meat, environmentally. It may not get us any environmentalist of the year awards, but at least we're doing something.
(I'd be fine with eating whatever meat someone wants if only the treatment of the animals was actually humane, they had more than enough space, and couldn't be killed before a certain humane lifespan. Of course, that would drive up costs considerably and make meats slightly less tasty, so unless we burn down our system and my guillotine business plan takes off, that's not going to happen.)
@bob_zim @thomholwerda @danirabbit Yeah, silvopasture or other regenerative pasturing isn't just *possible*, it's how nature evolved to keep sequestering carbon into gorgeous, vibrant, three-foot-deep soil for rich grasslands and scrublands. It also makes for happy grazers, often protected from predators, with medical care.
It just doesn't produce huge amounts of meat and money per acre when people are habituated to prices that come of thinking of meat as "every meal, what living conditions" and not sacred, rare, festival food.
@thomholwerda @danirabbit I mean, red meat is a class 2a carcinogen & preserved meat like bacon is a class 1 carcinogen.
So, cutting back isn't just good the planet & kinder to our non-human cohabitants, it lowers your cancer risk.
It's a terrible shame that synthetic meat seems to have fizzled out. It would've solved a lot of problems.
@argv_minus_one @danirabbit well the problem is that synthetic meat isn't 100% completely perfect with zero ethical or environmental or taste or texture issues, so it's basically a complete waste of time.
/sarcasm for Poes Law.
@argv_minus_one @danirabbit I don't know! I'm just making a joke!
But if you really want to find out, just post "#syntheticmeat has absolutely zero #ethical issues and is completely fine" here on Mastodon, and some joyless bastard will be around in 5 minutes to tell you you're wrong...
@bencurthoys @argv_minus_one @danirabbit
May I be the joyless bastard and weigh in about synthetic meat? I hope not to crash the party (also, I am several hours late, lol)... 
The problem I see with synthetic meat is about the food system we want.
Synthetic meat is an industrial product, requiring global supply chains, large-scale (sterile) facilities and a stratified and complex (and stratified) social and economic structure.
A part from making the life cycle assessment quite complex (because e.g. the quantification of the environmental impact of a production system depends mainly from where you draw the system boundaries, so it is very easy to leave out processes and obtain a nicer picture than in reality), hyper-technological systems are not resilient (remember when during covid there was a global shortage of lab gloves because *all* of them are produced in Malaysia? there are many components in a lab that are not easy to source in a crisis).
On another note, it is also a question of organization. A food system based on small-scale, local and sustainable farms is in my eyes much preferable than megacorporations owning the food production chain. I am not sure that lab meat will be easy to grow in our basements like fungi or so...
Also, be aware that a lot of the lab meat bubble was because it seemed so attractive to investors. Technological, scalable solutions that seem even more sustainable than what we have actually. A very welcome investment opportunity and a good narrative for corporations that want to show that they will save the world (remember biofuels from algae?).
Don't get me wrong, I am not fundamentally against industry or technology, it's just that I think that it is a good idea to keep the influence of the corporate-industrial players out of the food system as much as possible.
It is correct that lab meat is probably way more ethical than the current system of industrial agriculture with factory farms. But we also easily tend to overestimate the contribution of industrial farming to feed the world, and overlook the millions of smallscale farmers that provide a way greater part of the foodstuff actually consumed by humanity. @viacampesina_en has more information about this.
#Agroecology #LabMeat #SyntheticMeat #AgroecologicalTransition #Diet #SustainableDiet #FoodSystem #WeFeedTheWorld
@danirabbit
I remember one guy from college who was pretty strict with himself and kept vegan. He'd been so his whole life.
EXCEPT burgers. He preferred his vegan burgers with bacon on them, which always got him some looks. Cheese alternative, vegan condiments, and bacon.
@danirabbit Exactly.
It has taken me a long time to be "mostly" vegetarian.
People change their diet quickly, and then complain and whinge and don't stick to it.
Of course that's going to be hard, unless you've got serious will-power.
First I started eating veggie stuff at work for lunch as it was really nice, but still having "normal" meals at night with my family.
Over the years I ate less and less meat, and found good alternatives (some even my meat-eating other half likes).
I found some good cheese alternatives.
I found a nice tea that doesn't require milk.
I use plant milks for pretty much everything.
I thought i'd never give up bacon, but I don't really miss it. I don't think i've had bacon for more than a year now.
I can smell it when other people are cooking it, but it doesn't really bother me.
I'm still far from being vegan, but i'm getting close....
The last thing I need to cut out is butter and cheese.
Vegan food has come a long way from the 80s and 90s when it was just crappy dry "nut roasts" and things like that.
There's no excuse not to at least eat more vegan stuff. There's so much choice now.
@bob_zim @danirabbit very true!
I love veggie curries. They don't need to be "hot" spicy, but they taste really nice.
We have a good selection of takeaways and restaurants locally, as we have a relatively large Indian population.
True! I’ve been a vegetarian since forever, and I love love love spice mixes they sell for meat, BBQ, curries etc.
So often, I’ll just toss some veggies in a pan, stir fry them, and add some spice mix - ras el hanout, baharat, garam masala etc. Yum!
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