dilemma
i want to write some more about my status as a hypocrite when it comes to eating meat as a means of socializing. according to the merriam-webster dic, a hypocrite is: a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings. this describes me to the t.
i virtually never prepare meat at home. but as i described my dilemma of 'to meat (=to eat meat) or not to meat' in my first post, i realize that I am a social meat eater, like other people are social smokers, drinkers or druggers.
some random oddities about my meat eating practice:
i am afraid i will keep you posted in my coming to terms with food. as you will find out, food takes center stage in my life.
i virtually never prepare meat at home. but as i described my dilemma of 'to meat (=to eat meat) or not to meat' in my first post, i realize that I am a social meat eater, like other people are social smokers, drinkers or druggers.
some random oddities about my meat eating practice:
- i don't eat pork because at home as a child, we never ate it <--> occasionally i crave some mortadella, pate, salami or smoked sausage and give in. (not 10 times a year) (we did eat pink veal, a total no-no nowadays.)
- i used to love chicken piri-piri, grilled chicken doused in hot pepper-garlic olive oil - as i rarely come across a tasty, free-range specimen, i crave but hardly ever give in, as i know i will not like the taste, less then 5 times a year.
- i love lamb. i give in 5 - 7 times a year.
- i love duck and pigeon and give in 3 times a year max.
- i used to love mollusks and octopus and ate it regularly, as they are national favorites of the portuguese friends i hang out with a lot - then i saw this documentary on tv and to my utter amazement, octopi demonstrated such creative survival strategies, that i deemed them too intelligent to eat for a snack. not eaten since 2002, not even a morsel.
- i love shrimps,mussels, clams, and eat those twice a month on average. now thinking about the devastating effect of shrimp-farming in developing countries, i shouldn't be eating them.
- since seeing my first live lobster at 189 feet while deep sea diving around bonaire, i refrained from eating them. this must have been in 1987. i have maybe eaten 7 times a lobster bisque since, the soup that used to be my favorite.
- and then beef. i love a rare steak, but with mad cow disease and abominal slaughter practice, i hardly ever eat it any longer.
- fish i eat regularly, but not of the farmed inclination.
i am afraid i will keep you posted in my coming to terms with food. as you will find out, food takes center stage in my life.
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When I was vegan, I believed I had thought of all the animal-sourced foods I would encounter out in the world and had eliminated them (except I used leather for shoes because it made more sense to me than plastic shoes--this argument may not hold up to today's eco-recycled-vegan shoe choices). But then I met someone who outdid me by eliminating honey. It had never occurred to me since I'd known an entomologist beekeeper and perceived no threat to the bees. It was then that I saw it as my personal choice, and I can choose to what degree.
Trying to maintain the strictest definition is a way to invite people around you who do not share your diet to try to trip you up. Don't get caught trying to defend yourself--they're probably on the attack because they're intimidated or threatened. Most people, by now, are aware of what meat-eating entails: for animals, themselves and their health, and some are even aware of how it negatively affects the planet. To note: several people around me have, over the years, become vegetarian for long or short-term. It all helps.
Do what you can, and feel right by your own conscience.
One more note I've been wanting to share with you. I became vegetarian at 10. I stopped eating at our family gatherings. It wasn't until I was an adult and had learned to cook that I could eat comfortably at a family gathering. Then, around age 26, I was forced into a social situation in which my dinner hosts did not know that I was vegetarian and chicken-on-the-bone was the entree. We were newly acquainted and because we had such great repoire, I might have unconsciously thought they knew I was vegetarian--but really, I just forgot to tell them. I was forced to eat it out of politeness.
From that point, I realized that being able to eat meat socially was a skill I needed to maintain. Later, while working in a restaurant, I started exploring all the foods I'd never had. Through these experiences I tested whether I felt more 'energized' from the protein. I also sampled what the majority of U.S. Americans :) eat. It didn't ring my bell in any great way, and the tradeoff for my conscience was not there.
Since then, my "meatatarian" boyfriend has become my ovo-lacto vegetarian-who-would-still-hunt husband. By my example, he saw that it was possible and tastes good. Through the course of normal movie-watching, he saw Super Size Me, and Fast Food Nation and made his own choice. Through his actions, I again found the strength to claim "vegetarian" (ovo-lacto for now) and have become sometimes very outspoken. [See the following 2 posts]
best wishes!
sorry my reply took so long, but i have been offline for a while.
i agree with what you say, and i have resolved it by now that i am a vegan who sometimes eats something that can't classify like vegan, such as honey, or cheese or even meat, as a condiment. so i always announce i am a vegetarian who doesn't do milk.
my problem that i only lightly touched upon is, that the quality of most food people buy in supermarkets sucks, so i don't like to eat out much at all lately. i already have had problems with oil being used to fry the fries in, that had gmo elements in it and caused an itchy kind of outburst on my skin, nominally my hands and sides.
however, when the zest hits me, i go for organic and free range produce.
btw, you and your beau look like a very nice couple.
Thanks for your message too. I wanted to share this with you--this interview on NPR with Michael Pollan, from 01/04/2008. Here's the link, with complete audio (available as a stream or download) at upper left corner.
One point he makes: He suggests that people take progressive steps that they are comfortable with toward healthier eating--to do whatever thing(s) they can to at least get started eating healthier and closer to the source because it all helps.
What a great resource he is for people who are interested in food!
----
With everything going on, and how inconvenient/unreliable/expensive it is to buy decent food, I've ramped up my efforts to make a productive garden. Let me say on that note: the Farmer's Almanac's suggestions for planting dates [which relates to phases of the moon--really!] has been very helpful.
I got my neighbor started last week with planting a potato (which will be her first successful homegrown food, I hope). Potatoes are really easy to grow! And, just discovered how wonderfully easy beans are to grow. I had cranberry beans from a garden 6 years ago, and planted them all at the right time of month, and amazingly, 4 days later--Laaa! They had their first leaves out and look delightfully happy to be here--yes that is a personification of a plant, but that's the best way to describe.
Many of the seeds I planted were saved from "volunteer" fruit & vegetable plants that had sprouted from my buried compost. If I ever got a place that had a bit of land, I'd raise chickens, and maybe miniature goats. Some urban/ish areas do allow such things.
Rock on!
Mari