Thursday, July 09, 2009

Memorial to the unknown herbivore

I was having a friendly argument about vegetarianism. I'm not a vegetarian but do go days without eating meat, not as a conscious effort "to be healthy," just that the meals didn't happen to include meat in them. Most of the vegetarians I know are pretty relaxed about other people's choices and don't impose their views on others unbidden. I do know a few meat-eaters who get a bit evangelical about it, however. Sometimes it gets silly...

"You'd not catch me sitting around eating roots and seeds!"

"What's that you're eating, Bill?"

"A chip butty. Why?"

7 comments:

Lulu LaBonne said...

It is amazing how defensive people can be about their eating habits.

Do you think there's enough animosity to get wrestling matches going?

'Rabbit food eaters vs the dead animal society round one'

Gadjo Dilo said...

I think it's relaxed a bit since the 80s, when everything seemed to be more polarised, and vegans were an elite paramilitary force funded by the Dalai Lama.

Gareth Williams said...

Isn't meat making a bit of resurgence? Quality meat, that is. I suppose you could actually call it ethical meat eating, which really muddies the waters. We have so many ways to be virtuous nowadays.

BTW keep quiet about the chip butty being vegetarian or everyone will be turning.

Daphne Wayne-Bough said...

Remember the film Green Card where Gerard Depardieu is working as a waiter in New York? A group of New Yorkers comes in, when he goes to take their order he recommends the fillet of beef. One of them screams:

"Oh no! I can't have that. I don't eat meat."
Depardieu gives him a quizzical look and says simply:
"Why not?"

Which more or less sums up the French attitude to vegetarianism.

Militant veggies have understood that they have less popular support than the BNP. Now hey there's an idea. If the BNP would only focus their animosity on stupid white people with dreadlocks and Birkenstocks, I think we could come to some kind of accommodation.

Mrs Pouncer said...

"I'll have the alfalfa sprouts .... and a plate of mashed yeast". Where do I know that from? (Annie Hall, poss. Can't remember). Yesterday I ate a black cherry MullerLight, a Dr Karg poppyseed flatbread, 3 tomatoes, a sliver of smoked mackerel, a handful of olives and a bowl of CocoPops. I would quite like to be vegetarian; the mosaic laws give me an in, after all, but there is a terrible, terrible thing called Kalbsbraten Excelsior that I would probably accept even from the hand of Mr Jacqui Smith. It is my undoing.

Madame DeFarge said...

I adore meat, bit prefer to know where it comes from - I like happy pigs and happy cows. I also like happy chips from happy potatoes.

Barlinnie said...

I've been known to devour two 16oz steaks in one sitting, and still have room for more.

I have no problem with vegetarian cuisine, as long as it's served inbetween the meat courses.