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I'll have the locally-raised vegan fish molecules, please

Veganism, foie gras and personal choice -- megnut.com:


I have been a vegetarian three times, the final most severe phase of which occurred from 1998-2002. During that stint I forsook all dairy products, all eggs, and all meat. I was almost vegan (AV) except that I couldn't give up fish and ate a four to five servings of it a week. This was not because I thought fish had less feelings than cows or pigs, I simply enjoyed fish too much to give it up.


Sorry, but if you're eating fish 4 or 5 times a week, YOU'RE NOT EVEN A VEGETARIAN, let alone anything remotely resembling a vegan.

I eat with eyes wide open, with the full knowledge that an animal was bred and slaughtered for my consumption. And I am OK with that.

Many people are fine with that, because it remains at that nice abstract level. Your only real contact with the meat is at the very end of the production chain, and I'm afraid reading Michael Pollan's book isn't an acceptable substitute. I've read Pollan's book as well, and what bothers me about it is that it is yet again, a cop-out for meat eaters. "How can we wring our hands about foie gras when we're still killing pigs and cows for food?" The underlying assumption, the one that makes it possible to maintain the argument, is that meat-eating is an unquestioned given, based on the pleasure trump card. It's not. Vegans want to see all the killing stop.

As for the compromise bit: yes, it is difficult to eat out all the time and be vegan. However, it's much easier if you eat at restaurants whose culture has a long vegetarian tradition: Indian, Thai, Japanese. Places where meat was never the centerpiece of the meal to begin with. You know, all those elitist countries. That being said, it is much harder to be a foodie and a vegan. I eat a much wider variety of foods now than I ever did as a carnivore, because once my focus shifted from "how can I decorate this lump of meat?" an entire new world of cooking opened up to me. But if the best you could do at home was a frozen Amy's vegan pizza, then you couldn't have been very interested in cooking to begin with.

And just one question: why won't Bourdain eat dog?

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Posted by John on June 29, 2006 9:23 AM |

Comments

"And just one question: why won't Bourdain eat dog?"

Because blowhard provocateurs who're selling their own outrageousness to boost book sales are allergic to dog meat?

Posted by: mph | June 29, 2006 11:10 AM