Food is a profoundly cultural good. Eating (or refusing to eat) is enveloped by countless norms, values and ideological beliefs. Some of them are so fundamental to our way of life and way of being that we take them for granted and fail to recognize them as such. But then we sometimes drift slightly away from the ‘normal’ and they bite us fiercely, as if to say: ‘Hey, not so fast! I’m here to be obeyed!’
I often find it amusing how (some) people respond to vegetarianism or veganism. It would be even more amusing if I weren’t vegetarian. Aside from the occasional insinuations (for example, the ‘Real men eat meat’ nonsense) and the (oh, so funny) remarks (‘Of course, I’m not vegetarian. I’m not a rabbit!’), there are moments that get to you more profoundly.
One of those moments occurred to me a couple of days ago, when following a TV report that covered a small child’s death. A 10 month old baby, weighted at 3,5 kg, has allegedly died due to malnutrition. The reporter didn’t have much to go on, but managed to get a line from a neighbor about how the family was nice, the parents well educated, but… You know, they were vegetarian…
No need to say more, apparently.
Hi!
Re-twit you post: to my @kwudofui twitter
By: assimehiedo on November 6, 2011
at 2:11 am