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Being responsible for another human life terrifies me, because I kill plants.

Anytime something eats too much of my life, I kill it.

I think I was immediately fed, so food became a very important part of my life.

I think for me, food was a way for me to deal with emotional trouble.

Before I started writing about food, my focus was really on the human relationship to plants. Not only do plants nourish us bodily - they nourish us psychologically.

I was a mother who worked ridiculously hard to keep catastrophe at bay. I didn't allow my kids to eat hamburgers for fear of E. coli. I didn't allow them to play with rope, string, balloons - anything that might strangle them. They had to bite grapes in half, avoid lollipops, eat only when I could watch them.

The worst tragedy that could have befallen me was my success. I knew right away that I was through - cast out.

I don't eat animals. I rescue strays and take injured pigeons to the wildlife rehab. I carry spiders and wasps outside in a cup covered with a 3x5 card. It would only follow that I'd take pause when contemplating the abrupt and apparently brutal ending of a tiny human being's life, or even a potential human being's life.