Fixing Our Food System: The Importance of Informed Consumer Demand

This article first appeared in the December 2025 issue of Revive the Table. Subscribe here

As a former vegetarian turned rancher, I have cultivated a deep understanding of the need for animals in our food system. I’m passionate about sharing the benefits of well-produced animal-sourced foods because, for so long, I didn’t recognize the unintended consequences that my well-meaning food choices were having on the environment, my health and the lives of the animals I thought I was helping.

I became a vegetarian when I was thirteen years old. I have always been an animal lover and while that influenced my decision, it was primarily fueled by low-fat diet culture and the misguided notion that avoiding meat would be better for my health and help me manage my weight. What followed was years of disordered eating and a sad amount of my life spent preoccupied with food. I believe that my unhealthy relationship with food was first and foremost a result of not properly fueling my body and my brain.

I went back to eating meat in my early twenties, but it wasn’t until years later that I learned about different production methods and the importance of how animals are treated, raised and slaughtered. Even after reintroducing meat, the pull towards plant-based eating was strong. At this time of my life I was living in Los Angeles, a city where plant-based alternatives and vegan restaurants abounded. Faced with celebrity endorsements and rampant misinformation on the impact of animal foods, I embraced a plant-based diet. I continued to be obsessed with food and my weight, perpetually unsure of what I should eat. Sadly, we have been convinced, especially as women, to not trust our own bodies, our own hunger, and by extension, our own intuition.

In 2014, I had a conversation with a functional nutritionist named Margaret Floyd-Barry who knew my husband and I wanted to start a family. She also knew I was avoiding animal foods. She said to me, “Whatever you do, don’t have a vegan pregnancy.” It is one of the most influential things anyone has ever said to me.

I took it to heart and began eating for nutrient density. Instead of fad diets and counting calories or macros, I finally focused on eating real, unprocessed food, primarily from animal sources, with their satiating bioavailable nutrition. My relationship with food changed dramatically. I credit a diet high in animal fat and protein for giving me my life back; nothing has been quite as freeing as the loss of nagging hunger and an obsession with dieting.

I remember the very spot I was standing in the first time I heard Diana Rodgers speak about how there is no deathless diet. Something irrevocably shifted for me as I understood this truth: no matter what I choose to eat, creatures will inevitably die for my survival. Knowing this, I decided to take accountability for my food choices and support beneficial management practices.

In 2021, after a few years of urban homesteading in Northern California, my family and I moved to Ruckle Heritage Farm on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, Canada. Here we raise sheep, cattle, chickens and turkeys, as well as grow vegetables and fruit. In those early years of farming, I found myself struggling with the emotional complexity of killing animals I raised. I continued to experience the benefits of a whole foods diet, and I could see the sustainability of our farming practices when I looked out my window, yet I still found myself grappling with my choice to eat meat.

Then one day, looking across this beautiful farm, this thought came over me: Just because it’s sad, doesn’t mean it’s wrong. This truth calmed my inner struggle, finally untangling the mental and emotional push-and-pull I had been experiencing. It is deeply meaningful that animals die so that we can live and it is not something that should be taken lightly. Yet we can hold this discomfort and offer reverence and gratitude, rather than turn away from meat, the very food we evolved eating. I have come to understand that we can do more for animal welfare in our lifetime by supporting good farming practices than we can rejecting all animal agriculture.

By not eating meat, we spare the lives of the livestock we would have consumed, but we are doing nothing to help those animals still left in the system. Consumers need to see the big picture and understand that the best way to end animal suffering is not just rejecting poor farming practices, but by supporting good farming practices.

There is tremendous hope in the grassroots uprising of farmers revitalizing food production in their local communities, and yet, true change in our food system will only be made possible through the continued swell of informed consumer demand.

As farmers and ranchers, it is important that we can articulate how important well-managed animals are for our health and the health of our planet. We can also have compassion for those struggling to reconcile their love of animals with an acceptance of these truths. By demonstrating a grounded path towards a better food future, we can inspire more people to spend their conscientious food dollars supporting good farming. Repairing our food system will be made possible by the replicated regenerative practices of caring farmers and those who support them.