I did not dwell upon this, but was definitely aware of it. When I went on to the Middle School in sixth grade, there was a “pod” system. The brightest children were in 6A1, then 6A2, 6A3, and 6A4. I was in 6B1, and the pods continued all the way down to 6D4. Once again I felt like I was not placed in the pod that most suited what I felt were my own abilities. During the summer between sixth and seventh grades, I was called into school to take a battery of intelligence tests. When seventh grade began, I was placed in 7A1, and was also enrolled into the gifted program. I immediately felt more at home, but I also remained aware of what seemed to be a clear link between academic ability/achievement and socio-economic status. In high school, the class distinctions seemed to intensify even further. There were the students enrolled in the college prep and advanced college prep curricula who were mostly middle and upper class – the jocks and the preppies. The largest majority of the 1,700 students were in the general and vocational curricula. They were often referred to as “scruffs” or “rednecks” and came from the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum. “White trash” would be the more recent term. Then there was a very small group, literally a handful, who were not interested in being part of either groupl that was my brother Joe and I, and about half a dozen of our closest friends. We were what one would call “new wave” back in the 1980s. We dressed differently and listened to different music. We were mostly tolerated by the jocks and preppies, but were clearly despised by the scruffs and rednecks. They went out of their way to abuse us both physically and emotionally. It left a deep impression upon me. I was often infuriated by how we were treated, just because we dared to be different. With distance, the fury mellowed into sympathy for so many facing truly bleak futures in a small run-down mining town in rural Pennsylvania.
	I enrolled in undergraduate studies at Eastern University in 1986 to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree with three majors: Economics, Political Science, and Spanish. My original motivation for that particular mix is difficult to recall now, but I think I may have had visions of myself as an international business tycoon. Early on in my studies, however, came the next turning point. In a general biology course required of all students, I discovered I had a passion and deep concern for environmental issues. During one class, the professor spoke about how inefficient it was to eat meat, explaining that something like ninety percent of the energy in sunlight is lost when it is cycled through plants to animals and only then to humans. He also talked about the resources used for the production of a pound of beef, which I recall included 2,500 gallons of water and 16 pounds of grain. 