Ecotarianism might be described by some as a sort of "Greatest Hits" collection of all our favourite food fads of the last decade. The word was coined by undergraduate students at Oxford University in 2006 who wanted to combine all the major environmental and humanitarian aspects surrounding the products we buy and roll them all into one. The result, ecotarianism, is a lifestyle choice where we remain conscious in our decisions when choosing anything from food to clothing to shampoo. Ecotarians choose produce that is organic, fairtrade, is locally sourced to cut down food miles, is in season – so no asparagus at Christmas!
Saving the world with each bite
Ecotarianism, in short, is eating to save the planet but does this all become frighteningly confusing when say, you buy fairtrade coffee which may have been air-freighted from Africa? Which principles take precedence over others? There is no clear-cut definition of how an ecotarian must make their choices, however many bloggers on the subject declare that they go with what « feels right ». The bloggers, Two Peas, No Pod, (http://nopod.blogspot.com/) are two vegans from Australia who regularly try and make the right decisions regarding the environment.
The couple, Cristy and P write that, "For us, being ecotarians means that whenever we make a decision about our consumption (be that of food or any other product) we try to consider a whole myriad of ethical issues that relate to the impact of our choice on the Earth....This isn't about being perfect, it is just about trying to make the best choices that we can"
Self sufficiency
Andy Hamilton is a professional forager from Bristol, England and is the author of Selfsufficient-ish Bible, an urban guide to "almost self-sufficiency". He says that ecotarianism is about being realistic in your choices, "It's about being realistic, but equally I will buy Fairtrade orange juice now and again and I'm not just thinking 'Right, I've done my bit for Africa there', but I do actively choose not always to buy local for that reason alone. I like to buy local honey, but occasionally will buy Fairtrade because it is helping the rainforest, in that if they are making money from it perhaps they'll stop chopping it down."
At its very base, ecotarianism is founded upon the principles that vegetarianism was back in the 1840s when activists began the revolution against killing animals for human consumption. The ecotarian oftens takes into account that consuming meat takes a lot more energy than plants do – for example, it takes 5kg of grain to raise 1kg of meat, thus the ecotarian would choose the more energy-efficient option.