Earth Day is coming (rant)

So, apparently Earth Day is coming. Do you know how I know this? The glut of ‘eco-friendly’ wedding posts in an old wedding community I used to frequent during planning, but now go back every now and then to look at pretty dresses.

Reminders of how to have a ‘green’ wedding go from corn based disposable plates and cups to recycled paper invites. People seem to have some sort of ‘I’m soooo much greener than you’ thing going on. It pissed me off last year and it still does.

CORN? Yeah, lets give Monsanto more money by using even more of our valuable land to grow yet more of their GMO corn that is not meant for food. Not to mention the boatload of chemicals used in making corn products. Sustainable? Sure. Eco friendly? Not particularly.

People don’t seem to understand that ‘sustainable’ and ‘eco-friendly’ (or whatever you wat to call it) do not mean the same thing. Leather is a sustainable product. Leather is NOT an eco friendly product.

I want to yell at these people, “If you are so concerned about the environment, don’t serve meat at your wedding!” but we all know how that would go over.

The best thing you can do for the environment is to stop consuming animal products. It is not knitting with bamboo yarn (again, sustainable but not eco-friendly), it is not using corn plates and it is most certainly not buying into this whole “green” label.

I agree that every little thing counts. Yes, use recycled paper for your invites! Use live, potted plants for your centerpieces (a friend of mine is doing succulents!). Do as much or as little as you want to make your wedding what you want, but please, don’t brag about how ‘green’ you are and then talk about your menu of steak, chicken or fish. Hell, serve a whole cow and pig on a spit (not that I condone this), but don’t tell me how green your wedding is because you had DIY seat covers.

I like to educate about a vegan lifestyle. If people ask, I’ll talk to them about it. I don’t like to be pushy about it. I certainly dont like being proselytized to, so I don’t do it to others. But if someone asks me how they can be more ‘green’ I am going to tell them to cut down their consumption of animal products. Cutting them out all together is better, of course, but baby steps are good.

I’m not the most environmentally conscious person out there. Far from it. I went vegetarian because I love animals. I had rats for pets and loved them like crazy for crying out loud, how could I justify eating a pig or cow? When I met Mr. Pithecus, he was vegetarian as well, though for environmental reasons. Our decision to go vegan was based on both.

I am not saying we are better than those that eat meat, but don’t try and get into a ‘green’ pissing contest with us. I am not saying don’t bother with the recycled stuff if you are still going to eat meat. Just don’t be all righteous about your recycled toilet paper while chowing down on a plate o’ ribs.

I know I have a lot of meat eater friends who read this blog. I hope I don’t offend them with this rant. Most of you don’t buy into the whole ‘look how green I am’ thing anyway. You all have brains.

Now I have to go make some non organic coffee in my department store bought french press and drink it from my commercially bought mug on my non-eco friendly couch while watching my giant, ungreen TV.