Are you a vegetarian/vegan? What are your thoughts on vegetarianism/veganism?
Again, apologies if this has sat in my inbox for a while, Tumblr never notifies me of new msgs anymore!
Certified omnivore here. I get my irons and other nutriments from some animals, and I love heavy creams and yogurts and ice cream way too much to ever give ‘em up. I totes respect my friends who are vege’s / vegans for having way more self-discipline than I do. As a point of personal conduct, I currently exercise the privilege of spending extra money to get products from animals who are treated decently. However, I think it’s missing the big picture to harp on individual “choices” when it comes to food. So many people’s food access is compromised by shitty government practices and long-standing effects of poverty & discrimination. No single person is free of constraints placed on them by the dominant culture, the state, and the economic situation where they live. Because of that, I don’t think it’s productive to shame anyone for what they choose to eat or not eat. I don’t think freegans who break into suburban Whole Foods dumpsters have any moral superiority over a single parent who manages to stretch a few packs of lunch meat & some pasta into kids’ meals for a week.
Honestly I think these are potentially radical and transforming practices, but unfortunately the public image of vegetarianism / veganism has been co-opted so heavily by liberal North Americans with disposable income... like, my knee-jerk reaction to someone identifying themselves as such is very similar to when someone volunteers that they’re Christian. Are they a church-choir-and-charity-towards-the-poor Christian, or the type who’ll try to exorcise the devil from me when they find out just how gay I am? Are they a community-gardening-and-support-for-families-living-in-food-deserts vegetarian, or the type of vegan who will have a toxic melt-down if they discover there’s cheese in my fridge & try to convince me organic plant foods cure all cancer? It’s a toss-up. That said, I applaud the folks who try to engage people with an awareness of the difference between individual action and collective change. Vegetarians & vegans have brought forth a lot of valid criticisms against Western agri-business, and they’re right to interrogate the way certain nations (like the U.S.) teach our citizens to think or NOT to think about food production and distribution (why does our government maintain such wasteful corporate farming & food vending practices? Why is food security not a universal right? Why do we continue to buy into the idea that only people with money deserve nourishment? We made up money, it’s a shitty game we created for ourselves and now we’re saying you either play or you die of starvation, that’s kind of shit actually.)
Anyway it’s the time of night where I could go on a really long rant about economic exploitation and resistance, so I’m gonna make myself end here and go to bed.