I’ll never forget when my then 4-year-old son started to understand where food comes from.
We were talking about how fish eat worms and flies, then birds eat the fish and then predators eat the birds.
“It’s a good thing we don’t eat animals,” he said. “We eat food.”
I got a kick under the table from his mother telling me not to explain. But eventually I did, and he was grossed out that we ate meat but he justified it saying that since animals eat animals and we are animals, he was OK eating meat.
He doesn’t feel the guilt I do, when I look at cows and think they could end up on my table. I suspect he will someday.
Meanwhile, I’ve introduced him to alternatives.
Last year we went to VegFest and he was happy with the meat substitutes and all the vegan options. It opened a whole new world.
That’s the message in a festival that has grown in a year from an outpost at the Cocoanut Grove to the wide expanse of the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville. You don’t have to eat meat out of habit, convenience or taste. There are options that are beneficial to the environment and your health.
We think a visit to this Fest will open your minds and taste buds to new possibilities.
Speaking of fests, the good news is that the Gilroy Garlic Festival is back, which you can read about in Mark C. Anderson’s dining column. The bad news is that the Artichoke Festival is gone after 65 years, but I would bet it will be back somewhere. Artichokes, so plentiful here, deserve a celebration. I never met anyone who tried their first ’choke and didn’t love it.
We no longer have smell-o-vision in the movies, but we have a new local business celebrating local smells with candles called Hot Melty Wax. Read Mat Weir’s article for the scoop.
Thanks for reading.
Brad Kava | Editor
PHOTO CONTEST
SEA THE MOMENT Taken at Seabright State Beach with an iPhone 13. Photograph by Sharon Barnes
GOOD IDEA
Santa Cruz Celebrates 50 Years of Santa Cruz Pride with Festive Pride-themed Window Art Contest.
Until June 15, community members are invited to pick up a free Pride Window Art map at the Downtown Association’s Info Kiosk—1130 Pacific Ave. in Santa Cruz—or at local businesses. The map guides participants to all the dazzling window displays, and allows them to vote for their favorite artistic creation.
The business whose window receives the most votes will be awarded $250 Downtown Dollars for their staff. Additionally, all participants who turn in their completed map to the Info Kiosk by June 15 will be entered into a drawing to win $50 Downtown Dollars.
GOOD WORK
The annual Summer Lunch program, sponsored by La Manzana Community Resources, a program of Community Bridges’ Family Resource Collective, kicks off June 9.
Kids 18 and under can pick up a free lunch at various sites in Santa Cruz and Watsonville through early August. Most Watsonville sites will distribute lunches through Aug. 8.
Through Community Bridges (communitybridges.org), the Summer Lunch program has served 20,000 meals over the last three years. It is estimated that more than 30 million children across the U.S. depend on free meal programs such as these that are more critical when the traditional sources in schools are closed for summer.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
‘A leader who mocks the weak, exalts himself and preys on the innocent was not sent here by God.’
—Pope Leo XVII
