While there are a handful of blogs I read throughout the week, I use the weekends to catch up with all the food blogs I've got on my list. In the midst of my reading, I stumbled across this on Michael Bauer's blog: a post and following discussion about foie gras, meat-eating, and the ethics of both.
Since the post focuses on a discussion that Bauer had with a vice-president at PETA, the comments go around and around about PETA's methods. I personally have some problems with the organization. While I'll happily "honk if you hate animal cruelty" when there are protesters outside the local KFC, I find PETA is often too preachy or too in-your-face. I don't know if the best way to convince others not to wear leather is to throw animal blood on them and their leather jackets. I also sometimes think the logic they use when making pro-vegetarian statements is faulty.
To be honest, I'm not a fan of anyone who tries to push their point of view on me. I have a problem with meat-eaters who are over the top, too (ever seen the website VegetariansAreEvil. com?). After reading all the comments on Bauer's post, I just wanted to put my hands over my ears and go, "La la la la!" I didn't want to hear any of it anymore: "There is just no physiological reason to eat plants if you don't want to." "You cannot 'respect' an animal by killing it and eating it." Seriously, people, just shut up, do some research, and eat based on informed decisions. There is no point in arguing or beating each other over the head with your opinions.
The post makes for interesting reading, though.
2 comments:
There is a point to discussing eating ethics! Many! The problem with PETA and the sorts of absurdity that you pointed out at Vegetarians Are Evil is that they feed folks a steady diet of beside-the-point junk, slogans, and flashy images instead of giving people anything substantial to chew on.
That said, PETA does a lot of work against the weird disassociation that many Americans have regarding the often unsavory connection between living animals and meat. Like my mom has said, she just doesn't want to have to see it because it'll make it harder for her to eat it.
You're right. It is important to discuss the ethics of food. But there is no point to clobbering other people over the head with one's tunnel-vision ideas of what is "right" when it comes to food. Browbeating is not discussion, and that's often what seems to come out of the mouths of PETA fans — at least, the vocal ones who comment on articles.
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